Surviving the Dead: The Beginning
by Hilaryh25
Summary: Follow Samantha Dixon as she tries to survive while fighting the dead along side her brother. This will go from season 1 all the way up to the beginning of my other story.
1. Chapter 1

**Surviving the Dead: The Prologue**

 _ **Three weeks ago...**_

"Come on Darlina grow some balls and talk to her." Merle says to Daryl as we sit at the local bar in town

"Merle quit being an asshole" I said to him and he looked at me

"What?" He asked and clapped Daryl on the back, "Ah come on he knows I'm playing around don't you Darlina"

"Back of Merle" Daryl grumbled and Merle took a shot of whiskey then continued laughing, just then we hear screaming outside.

"The hell?" Merle asked heading to the door and we followed, when we walked outside we saw people running throughout the streets scared, I looked and saw two people kneeling down by a body with their hands covered in blood and I almost threw up when I saw that they were eating the body

"What the hell's going on?" I asked them as someone ran past us bumping into me nearly knocking me over

"I don't know" Daryl answered and we see military trucks pull up and men get out

"Who the hell cares come on!" Merle shouted at us pulling on Daryl's shirt and Daryl pulled on my wrist and we ran to the truck, I felt something grab me so I turned around seeing, well I'm not sure what the hell it was, but I screamed as it grabbed me but was quickly pulled off by Daryl. He punched it but it just kept snarling at him as he hit it again and again, I saw that it was getting close to biting his arm so I grabbed the crowbar from the bed of the truck and stuck it through the skull and whatever that thing was fell to the ground dead.

"I...I didn't..."

"Come on you two lets go!" Merle shouted from the truck and we got in driving off back to our house.

* * *

After we gathered up what we could and both me and Daryl grabbed our bikes loading mine up in the back and he drove his following me and Merle.

"Where are we going Merle?" I asked

"Gettin the hell out of town" He tells me and skidded to a stop as another car pulled out in front of him and he honked his horn, "Get out of the way asshole!"

"Merle!" I shouted at him and the guy gets out of the car

"What did you just say to me redneck?" The guy asked and Merle opened his door

"Merle! Don't!" I called after him, me and Daryl went over to him, Daryl held him back while I stood in between them

"Merle knock it off!" Daryl tells him as Merle tried to push past us

"Just go!" I told the guy and he huffed before getting in his car and drove off, "Are you out of your mind Merle? Now is not the time to start anything."

He pushed Daryl off him and huffed, "Whatever you say little sister" He tells me and gets in the truck and we drove off.

* * *

 _ **Now...**_

I wanna say it's been 3 weeks since this began, we ended up at a quarry with a few other people that Merle and Daryl were reluctant to go with but I eventually was able to convince them that there's strength in numbers against the things that a member of our group, T-dog, calls geeks.

Me and Daryl went out to hunt while Merle went on a run with some others, after being gone for a few days we were heading back following a deer, Daryl ended up shooting it but it got away so we followed it.

We made our way out of the trees seeing our group standing there with Shane pointing the gun at us, me and Daryl both flinch then he lowered it, "Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this…filthy," He started to say kicking the walker, "disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!"

"Daryl" I tell him and he gave me a quick glance

"Calm down, son. That's not helping." Dale says to him and Daryl walked over

"What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to "on golden pond"? We've been tracking this deer for miles." He pulled his bolts out of the deer, "Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" He asked pointing to the deer

"I would not risk that." Shane tells him and he sighed

"That's a damn shame. I got some squirrel… about a dozen or so. That'll have to do."

"You got the squirrel?" I asked and he looked at me

"She got the squirrels" He corrected and I smiled

Suddenly, the head of the Walker starts to move its teeth, "Oh god." I hear Amy say and Daryl goes over to it

"Come on, people. What the hell?" He shoots it with one of his arrows, "It's gotta be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?" He asked walking away and I followed him as we headed back to camp, "Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! We got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up."

"Daryl, Sam, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you both" Shane tells us and we look at him

"About what?" Daryl asked him

"About Merle. There was a…There was a problem in Atlanta."

"He dead?" I asked him, I hoped he wasn't, I may not be that close with Merle but I still don't want to lose him

"We're not sure."

"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl yells and a guy who I hadn't seen before moves forward

"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it..." The guy started to tell him

"Who are you?" Daryl asked him

"Rick grimes."

"Rick grimes, you got something you want to tell me?" Daryl asks

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Rick tells us and I looked at him with shock and anger clenching my fists as Daryl started to pace

"Hold on. Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed our brother to a roof and you left him there?!" Daryl yelled at him

"Yeah."

"Daryl goes to attack him, but Rick shoves him off, I see Daryl grab his knife out and face him

"Daryl!" I yelled at him

"Hey! Watch the knife!" T-Dog warned but Shane is able to come up behind him and put him in a chokehold.

"Okay. Okay."

"You'd best let me go!" Daryl says to him

"Nah, I think it's better if I don't."

"Choke hold's illegal." Daryl points out

"You can file a complaint. Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day." Shane tells him and Ric bent down to look at Daryl

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that? Do you think we can manage that?" Rick asked him and Daryl hesitated then nodded his head and Shane let him go, "What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others."

"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it." T-Dog says to me and Daryl

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl asked him

"Well, I dropped it in a drain."

"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't." Daryl says to him

"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof…So the geeks couldn't get at him…With a padlock. It's gotta count for something."

"Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so that Sam and I can go get him."

"He'll show you. Isn't that right?" Lori asked Rick and I looked between them shaking my head

"I'm going back." He says and Lori walks into the RV, Daryl walked away and picked up the squirrels and I followed him

"Daryl"

"What?" He asked with a tome of anger in his voice as we reached our tents

"Look be pissed off all you want, I am too, but that guy Rick is right, Merle does not play well with the people here and probably did something stupid to risk their lives."

"You sayin' that you agree with what he did?" He asked walking over to me getting close and I pushed him away

"No I'm not, they could've done things differently but what matters now is you going and getting our brother back."

"You ain't comin'?" He asks and I shake my head

"No, I think one hard headed Dixon going to get our brother should be enough, besides I can get the squirrels ready for the stew." I tell him and he sighed

"Alright"

* * *

"Well, look, I…I don't, okay, Rick? So could you just…Could you throw me a bone here, man? Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?" I hear Shane ask Rick as they walk over to the rest of us

"Hey, choose your words more carefully." I warned Shane and he looked at me

"No, I did. Douche bag's what I meant. Merle Dixon the guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."

"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst… me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being." Rick tells Shane and walked over to Lori

"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" She asked him and he turned to look at Glenn

"Oh, come on."

"You know the way. You've been there before…In and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask…I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too." He tells him indicating to Lori

"That's just great. Now you're gonna risk three men, huh?" Shane asked

"Four." T-Dog adds and Daryl huffs.

"My day just gets better and better, don't it?" Daryl asked out loud and I punched his shoulder making him look at me and I shook my head

"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-Dog asked him

"Why you?" Daryl asks

"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language." T-Dog pointed out and I sighed closing my eyes, _Damn it Merle_

"That's four." Glenn pointed out

"It's not just four. You're putting every single one of us at risk. Just know that, Rick. Come on, you saw that Walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp." Shane tells him

"It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." Rick pointed out and I looked at him

"Right, the guns." Glenn says

"Wait. What guns?" Shane asked Rick

"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up."

"Ammo?" Shane asks

"700 rounds, assorted.

"You went through hell to find us. You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?" Lori asked him

"Dad, I don't want you to go." Carl says to him and I looked at the young boy

"To hell with the guns. Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in. Tell me. Make me understand." Lori says

"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy. Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn him." Rick tells her

"What's stopping you?"

"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer." He pointed out

"These are our walkies?" Shane asked him

"Yeah."

"So use the CB. What's wrong with that?" I asked

"The CB's fine. It's the walkies that suck to crap…Date back to the '70s, don't match any other bandwidth…Not even the scanners in our cars."

"I need that bag. Okay?" Rick asked Lori and she looked at him

"All right."

"You be careful out there." I tell Daryl and he nodded his head, "I mean it Daryl, I can't lose both of you." I said and he looked at me

"I promise."

* * *

"Can someone explain to me how the women wound up doing all the Hattie McDaniel work?" Jaqui asked as we all sat by the water washing our clothes

"The world ended. Didn't you get the memo?" I asked her with a smile as Ed, Carol's husband, watches from his vehicle.

"It's just the way it is." Carol pointed out, "I do miss my Maytag."

"I miss my Benz, my sat nav." Andrea says

"I miss my coffeemaker with that dual-drip filter and built-in grinder, honey." Jaqui tells us

"Nice" I said to her

"My computer…And texting." Amy points out

"I miss sex" I said and they chuckled a little

"Well girl Jim sure seems to be eyeballing you a lot." Jaqui tells me and I looked at her shaking my head slightly while smiling and she nudged me

"I miss my vibrator." Andrea says and we all giggle

"Oh my God!" Amy groaned

"Me too." Carol says ducking her head and we crack up.

"What's so funny?" Ed asked us walking over and I rolled my eyes

"Just swapping war stories, Ed." Andrea tells him and he comes up to us standing behind Carol, "Problem, Ed?" She asked

"Nothin' that concerns you. And you ought to focus on your work. This ain't no comedy club." He says to Carol

"Ed, tell you what…you don't like how your laundry is done, you are welcome to pitch in and do it yourself. Here." Andrea tells him and she tosses a shirt at him, Ed throws it right back.

"Ain't my job, missy."

"Andrea, don't." Amy begs her

"What is your job, Ed? Sitting on your ass smoking cigarettes?" I asked him standing up and facing him

"Well, it sure as hell ain't listening to some smart-mouthed bitch. Tell you what…come on. Let's go." He says to Carl and she started to stand up

"I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you, Ed." I tell him standing in front of Carol

"And I say it's none of your business. Come on now. You heard me."

"Carol."I tell her putting my hand on her shoulder

"Sam please. It doesn't matter." She says to me putting her head down

"Hey, don't think I won't knock you on your ass just 'cause you think your tough, all right?" He asked me and I clenched my fist as he looked at Carol, "Now you come on now or you gonna regret it later."

"So she can show up with fresh bruises later, Ed? Yeah, we've seen them." Jaqui says to him and he laughs

"Stay out of this. Now come on! You know what? This ain't none of y'all's business. You don't want to keep prodding the bull here, okay? Now I am done talking. Come on" HE tells us and grabbed Carol's arm but both me and Andrea move to stop him

"No no."

"Carol, you don't have…" I started to tell her but Ed cut me off

"You don't tell me what! I tell you what!" He yells and slaps Carol, at this point I had enough, Andrea and Jaqui try to pull Carol free as Ed continues to grab at Carol, Shane walks over and grabs Ed.

"Get off me!" Ed demands

"Ed?" Carol asked as Shane throws Ed to the ground

"It's okay. It's okay." I reassure her

Shane pummels his face multiple times. Ed's face gets bloody as Shane continues to punch him. We watch in horror as Shane mutilates Ed's face.

"Shane, stop! Just stop!" Andrea yells at him

"Stop it! Stop!" I yell at him and Shane grabs Ed and tells him something

"Ed!" Carol cried

"I'll beat you to death." Shane hits him one more time and then kicks him in the stomach.

"Oh God! No. God!" Carol bursts out in tears and kneels over him, "Ed, I'm sorry. Oh my God. Ed, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Ed. Ed, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Ed."

* * *

We head back to camp and I walk over to my tent, "Sam?" I hear someone ask and I turn around seeing Jim standing there, _God damn it_ , "I um found this in the car Glenn brought back and thought you'd like it." He tells me handing me a knife that had a small black rope wrapped around it

"Thanks Jim." I tell him and he gave a small smile and started to walk away, "Hey Jim" I stopped him and he looked at me, "Can you help me with something?" I asked him and he smiled, hell it's the end of the world I might as well take advantage of it, he walked over to me and I grabbed his hand and we walked into my tent. After I woke up when we were done I looked over and saw he was gone, "Typical" I sighed and got dressed.

* * *

"Oh, baby. Will you look at that?" I hear Morales say and I look up seeing Andrea and Amy walk over with a whole bunch of fish, "Hey, check it out. Ladies…Because of you my children will eat tonight. Thank you."

"Thank Dale. It's his canoe and gear." Andrea tells him

"Mom, look. Look at all the fish." Carl tells Lori, "Whoa"

"Yeah, whoa. Where did you two learn to do that?" She asked them

"Our dad." Amy answered

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Carl asks

"Sure. I'll teach you all about nail knots and stuff. If that's okay." Amy says to Lori

"You won't catch me arguing." She says and I see Dale walk over

"Hey, Dale. When's the last time you oiled those line reels? They are a disgrace." Andrea says to him but I look at the expression on his face

"I, uh, I don't want to alarm anyone, but we may have a bit of a problem." He tells us and Shane comes over as Dale points over to Jim who looks like he's digging holes.

* * *

"Hey, Jim. Jim, why don't you hold up, all right? Just give me a second here, please." Shane says to him as we all stand there watching him, he stopped digging and looked at Shane

"What do you want?"

"We're all just a little concerned, that's all." Shane says to him

"Dale says you've been out here for hours." Morales pointed out

"So?"

"So why are you digging? Are you heading to China, Jim?" Shane asked him

"What does it matter? I'm not hurting anyone."

"Yeah, except maybe yourself. It's a hundred degrees today. You can't keep this up." Dale urged, Jim looked at me then back at Dale

"Sure I can. Watch me."

"Jim, they're not gonna say it so I will. You're scaring people. You're scaring my son and Carol's daughter." Lori tells him

"They got nothing to be scared of. I mean, what the hell, people? I'm out here by myself. Why don't you all just go and leave me the hell alone?"

"We think that you need to take a break, okay? Why don't you go and get yourself in the shade? Some food maybe. I'll tell you what… maybe in a little bit I'll come out here and help you myself. Jim, just tell me what it's about. Why don't you just go ahead and give me that shovel?" Shane asked him

"Or what?"

"There is no or what. I'm asking you. I'm coming to you and I'm asking you, please. I don't want to have to take it from you." Shane points out to him

"And if I don't, then what? Then you're gonna beat my face in like Ed Peletier, aren't you? Y'all seen his face, huh? What's left of it. See, now that's what happens when someone crosses you."

"That was different, Jim." Shane tells him

"You weren't there. Ed was out of control. He was hurting his wife." Amy mentioned

"That is their marriage. That is not his." Jim says and I put my hand on Carol's shoulder as she comforts Sophia, "He is not judge and jury. Who voted you king boss, huh?"

"Jim, I'm not here to argue with you, all right? Just give me the shovel, okay?" Shane asked walking over reaching for the shovel

"No, no, no." Jim tells him holding it back

"Just give me the…" Jim shoves Shane away and then threatens to hit him with it. Shane tackles Jim to the ground, "Okay, shh shh."

"You got no right!" Jim yelled at him

"Stop. Shh."

"You got no right!" Jim repeated

"Jim, just stop it. Hey hey hey hey. Jim: Don't! Shane: Jim. Jim, nobody's gonna hurt you. You hear me? Shh. Jim, nobody is gonna hurt you, okay?" Shane tells him handcuffing him

"That's a lie. That's the biggest lie there is. I told that to my wife and my two boys. I said it 100 times. It didn't matter. They came out of nowhere. There were dozens of 'em. Just pulled 'em right out of my hands. You know, the only reason I got away was 'cause the dead were too busy eating my family." He tells Shane and I put my head down feeling my heart break for him.

* * *

Jim is tied to a tree to protect him from hurting anyone or himself. Shane and Dale go up to him with some water, as I sat with Lori, Carol and the kids while they taught them lessons and I sharpened my new knife.

"Sorry if I scared your boy and your little girl." Jim says to Carol and Lori

"You had sunstroke. Nobody's blaming you." Lori says to him

"You're not scared now, are you?" He asked Sophia

"No sir."

"Your mama's right. Sun just cooked my head is all." Jim said to Carl and I looked at him giving a small smile and went back to my knife

Jim, do you know why you were digging? Can you say?" Dale asked him

"I had a reason. Don't remember. Something I dreamt last night." He said and I looked over at him again, that's why he left before I woke up, "Your dad was in it. You were too. You were worried about him. Can't remember the rest. You worried about your dad?" He asked Carl

"They're not back yet."

"We don't need to talk about that." Lori tells Jim

"Your dad's a police officer, son. He helps people. Probably just came across some folks needing help, that's all. That man, he is tough as nails. I don't know him well but… I could see it in him. Am I right?" He asked Shane

"Oh yeah."

"There ain't nothing gonna stop him from getting back here to you and your mom, I promise you that." Jim says and I stand up

"All right. Who wants to help me clean some fish, huh?" I asked the kids and Carl looked at me

"Sweet. Come on, Sophia." Carl says and they both follow me.

* * *

We all sat around that night enjoying the fish and laughing telling stories, I was sitting next to Jaqui laughing about a story she was telling me when Jim sat next to me, Jaqui raised her eyebrow and left.

"I'm sorry" Jim mumbled and I looked at him, "About my behavior, and that I was gone when you woke up I just..."

"It's fine" I said with a smile and he looked down at his plate

"Are you worried about Daryl?" He asked me

"Yeah, him and Merle, asshole that he is Merle's still my big brother I don't think I can..."

"Hey," He cut me off grabbing my hand, "I'm sure they are both going to be ok, the 3 of you are tough and strong headed. Nothing is gonna slow you down." He says and I looked at him then leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek

"Thank you Jim" I tell him and he let go of my hand and I listened to the conversation that was going on with Morales and Dale.

"I've got to ask you, man. It's been driving me crazy." Morales says to Dale

"What?" Dale asked him

"That watch."

"What's wrong with my watch?" Dale asks

"I see you every day, the same time, winding that thing like a village priest saying mass." Morales points out

"I've wondered this myself." Jaqui added

"I'm missing the point." Dale says to us

"Unless I've misread the signs, the world seems to have come to an end. At least hit a speed bump for a good long while." I tell him and shivered, Jim wrapped his arm around my shoulder and I gave a side glance, I didn't quite know what I wanted the outcome of this to be but for now I would enjoy it

"But there's you every day winding that stupid watch." Morales says

"Time…it's important to keep track, isn't it? The days at least. Don't you think, Andrea? Back me up here." Dale asked her, "I like… I like what, um, a father said to son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down through generations. He said, 'I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine or my father's before me; I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment now and then and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it.'"

"You are so weird." Amy says to him and we all laugh

"It's not me. It's Faulkner. William Faulkner. Maybe my bad paraphrasing."

Amy gets up from the campfire, "Where are you going?" Andrea asked her

"I have to pee. Jeez, you try to be discreet around here…" Amy says and walked away, a few minutes later she steps out of the RV, "We're out of toilet paper?" I hear her ask then I hear her scream, I look up and see a walker biting her arm, and everyone else screams and scatters.

"Lori get him down!" Shane yelled picking up his rifle and started shooting them while I moved over to Carol as she holds Sophia to her, I kill a walker that made it's way over us.

"Follow me!" Morales yells

"Come on!" I tell Carol grabbing her hand leading them to the RV and I see Jim swing a bat at the walker that bit Amy then worked his way around the fire.

"Make your way to the Winnebago!" Shane yells to Morales and everyone

"Stay with Shane!" I tell Carol and go over to help Jim and Morales, I took my knife and stabbed about 3 or 4, just then another one sneaks up on me and before it could grab me I see Jim hit it with a bat then grabbed my hand pulling me towards the others and I see Rick and the others

"Sammie!" Daryl yells and I look at him and rush over to him killing another one and Daryl pulled me into a hug, I pulled away and nodded my head letting him know I was ok.

"Amy. I don't know what to do, Amy. Oh, Amy. Oh no no." I hear Andrea cry and I look over at her as she touches Amy's cheek and Amy remained still, she was dead, "Amy! Amy! Amy!"

"I remember my dream now, why I dug the holes." Jim points out and we all look at him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Surviving the Dead: The Beginning**

"You reap what you sow." I hear Daryl say as him and Morales drag a body over to where me, Jim and Jaqui were at

"You know what? Shut up, man." Morales tells him

"Y'all left our brother for dead. You had this coming."

"Daryl!" I yelled at him but he walked away and I shook my head

Jacqui, me and Jim are piling up bodies, I stop for a moment and Jim hands me a bottle of water, I take a drink but then notice the blood on his shirt, "Are you bleeding?" I asked him and he looked at me

"I just got some on me from the bodies."

"That blood is fresh. Were you bit?" Jaqui asked

"No. I got scratched during the attack." He tells her bending to help

"You got bit." Jagui points out standing up

"I'm fine."

"Then show me." I tell him and he looked at me putting his hand on my arm

"Don't tell, please."

"A walker got him. A walker bit Jim." Jaqui tells everyone backing away and the others come over, Daryl grabs my arm and pulled me away

"I'm okay. I'm okay."

"Show it to us. Show it to us." Daryl tells him and he backed up towards a shovel

"Easy, Jim." Shane says

"Grab him." Daryl tells T-Dog and Jim takes the shovel on the floor.

"Jim, put it down. Put it down." Shane ordered and T-Dog catches Jim back and holds him

"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim repeats over and over, Daryl lifts Jim's shirt, revealing a deep wound.

"No" I whispered and Jaqui wrapped a comforting arm around me as they backed up

"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim repeated and looked at me

* * *

"I say we put a pick-axe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it." Daryl tells the others as we stand in a circle talking about Jim

"Is that what you'd want if it were you? Or Sam?" Shane asked him

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it."

"I hate to say it…I never thought I would…but maybe Daryl's right." Dale interjected

"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog." Rick started to tell him

"I'm not suggesting…"

"He's sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?" Rick asked

"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be." Daryl tells him

"What if we can get him help? I heard the C.D.C. was working on a cure." Rick pointed out

"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell." Shane says to him

"What if the C.D.C. is still up and running?"

"Man, that is a stretch right there." Shane tells him

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the C.D.C. at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection…"

"Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning." Shane mentioned

'That's 100 miles in the opposite direction." I tell him

"That is right. But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me. If that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there."

"The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We've all seen that. The C.D.C. is our best choice and Jim's only chance." Rick says and I looked over at Jim who was sitting by the RV sitting in a cooler, Daryl looked over at him as well

"You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do." He said backing over to Jim

"Daryl" I warned him

"Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" He yelled and raised the pick-axe to Jim but Rick stopped him by pointing his gun at Daryl

"We don't kill the living."

"That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head." Daryl tells him as me and Shane stand in front of Jim

"We may disagree on some things, not on this. You put it down. Go on." Shane tells him and Daryl looked at me then put the pick-axe down and goes away.

"Come with me." Rick says to Jim helping him up

"Where are you taking me?"

"Somewhere safe." Rick tells him and we walk into the RV, "You'll be more comfortable in here." Rick said as Jim laid down on the bed

"Sam" Jim says to me and I look at Rick who nods and left, "I'm sorry"

I sat down next to him and grabbed his hand, "Don't, don't be sorry. You were doing what needed to be done."

"I just wish that.."

"Hey, life is to short to live with regrets" I tell him and he smiled

"Would you stay with me?" He asked and I nodded my head and laid down next to him, we didn't say anything just laid there and I ended up falling asleep

After I think about 10 minutes I was woken up by Jim panicking, "Oh no. No no no no. No, not this, please. No no no. Oh, no no no. No no."

"Jim, hey shhh it's ok." I reassured him and he looked at me, I put my hand on his face, "It's ok. it's ok" I tell him and he rested his head on me

* * *

"His fever is worse." I tell Rick and Lori as they walked into the RV while I was dabbing Jim with a cold rag

"You need anything?" Lori asked him

"Uh… Water. Could use more water."

"I'll get some." She tells him

"Okay."

"Sam, you help me?" She asked me and I nodded then gave Jim a smile and walked out with her, "When did you two..."

"Not now Lori, just...not now" I tell her and she puts her arm around my shoulder as we make our way to our water set up.

* * *

"Everybody listen up. Those of you with C.B.s, we're gonna be on channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay?" Shane tells everyone as we got ready to leave, "Now you got a problem, don't have a C.B., can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?"

"We're, uh…We're…we're not going." Morales tells us and we look at him

"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people." Miranda adds

"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back." Shane tells him

"We'll take the chance. I got to do what's best for my family."

"You sure?" Rick asked him

"We talked about it. We're sure."

"All right. Shane." Rick says to him

"Yeah, all right."

"357?" Rick asked

"Yeah." He replied and Rick hands Morales a gun and Shane hands him ammo, "The box is half full."

"Thank you all…For everything." Miranda tells us and we all say our goodbyes to them and I walked over to my bike and Daryl walked over to me

"What's been going on with you and Jim?" He asked me and I looked at him

"Nothing, nothing anymore" I tell him and he put his hand on my shoulder

"You sure you wanna take your bike?"

"Yeah, the truck won't fit both our bikes, plus it clears my head" I tell him and he nodded then headed to the truck as Jaqui walked over to me, "You'll keep an eye on him?" I asked her and she hugged me

"Of course sweetie" She tells me and headed to the RV and I got on my bike then we all drove off

* * *

"We'll be back on the road soon." Rick tells Jim as we stop after the hose blew on the RV

"Oh no. Christ…My bones…My bones are like glass. Every little bump…God, this ride is killing me. Leave me here. I'm done. Just leave me." Jim tells him and looked at me, "I want to be with my family."

"They're all dead. I don't think you know what you're asking. The fever…You've been delirious more often than not." Rick tells him

"I know. Don't you think I know?" Jim tells him then groans and I put my hand on his shoulder, "I'm clear now. In five minutes I may not be. Rick, I know what I'm asking. I want this. Leave me here. Now that's on me. Okay? My decision. Not your failure."

"Jim.."

"Sam, please?" Jim asked me cutting me off

* * *

"It's what he says he wants." Rick tells the others

"And he's lucid?" Carol asked him

"He seems to be. I would say yes."

"Back in the camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down, you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer." Dale points out

"We just leave him here? We take off? Man, I'm not sure I could live with that." Shane says

"It's not your call, either one of you." I tell them and Daryl wrapped his arm around my shoulder

Rick and Shane carry Jim to a nearby tree, "Yeah. That's it." Rick says and Jim groaned

"Hey, another damn tree." Jim chuckles.

"Hey, Jim…I mean, you know it doesn't need to be this." Shane tells him

"No. It's good. The breeze feels nice."

"Okay. All right." Shane says standing up and Jaqui knelt down in front of him

"Just close your eyes, sweetie. Don't fight." She tells him and kisses him on the cheek.

Rick takes a gun and shows him, "Jim, do you want this?"

"No. You'll need it. I'm okay. I'm okay."

"Oh. Hey. Thanks for, uh, for fighting for us." Dale tells him and the others say goodbye, Daryl looks at him then me and walked away

"Sam," Jim says holding out his hand, I grab it and kneel down sniffling, "Don't cry for me, alright? Whatever this was or could of been, it was great, it was nice to feel happy again. You made me happy Sam," He tells me and wiped a tear off my face, "So don't cry"

I leaned forward and kissed him, "You made me happy too." I tell him and he smiled

"You better go." He says and I hesitated then stood up and walked over to my bike taking one more look at him fighting back tears then got on and we drove off, leaving Jim there.

* * *

We arrive outside the compound and see the building is surrounded by a lot of corpses, as well as swarms of flies. We approach the CDC, where hundreds of bodies lay dead on the ground.

"All right, everybody. Keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet. Let's go." Shane tells us as we quietly move through the bodies, "Okay, keep moving. Stay together."

"Keep moving. Come on." Rick says

"Nothing?" Shane asks then pounds on the door.

"There's nobody here." T-Dog points out

"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick asked

"Walkers!" Daryl yells and shoots it in the head, "You led us into a graveyard!"

"Daryl!" I scolded

"He made a call." Shane tells him

"It was the wrong damn call!"

"Just shut up. You hear? Shut up. Shut up!" Shane says and looked at Rick, "Rick, this is a dead end."

"Where are we gonna go?" Jaqui asked

"Do you hear me? No blame." Shane tells Rick

"She's right. We can't be here, this close to the city after dark." Lori pointed out

"Fort Benning, Rick…still an option." Shane mentioned

"On what? No food, no fuel. That's 100 miles." Andrea points out

"125. I checked the map." Glenn says

"Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight, now." Lori tells Rick

"We'll think of something."

"Come on, let's go. Let's get out of here. Let's go." Shane tells us, "All right, everybody back to the cars. Let's go. Move."

"The camera…it moved." Rick tells us and we look at him

"You imagined it." Shane says to him

"It moved. It moved."

"Rick, it is dead, man. It's an automated device. It's gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now come on." Shane told him, "Man, just listen to me. Look around this place. It's dead, okay? It's dead. You need to let it go, Rick."

Rick slams on the shutters, "I know you're in there. I know you can hear me." Rick says into the camera and Shane tries to drag him away, with the help of Lori.

"Everybody get back to the cars now!" Shane orders us

"Please, we're desperate. Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left."

"Rick. There's nobody here." Lori points out to him

"We have nowhere else to go." Rick pounds on the door, "If you don't let us in, you're killing us! Please!"

"Come on, buddy, let's go. Let's go." Shane tells him

"Please help us. You're killing us! You're killing us! You're killing us!" Rick begs and we are just about to walk away when the door to the CDC opens and we see a bright light

* * *

"Daryl, Sam, you cover the back." Shane tells us

"Hello? Hello?" Rick called

"Watch those doors. Watch for walkers."

"Hello?" Rick called again and we hear a gun cock and we turn to see a guy standing at the stairs

"Anybody infected?" The man asked us

"One of our group was. He didn't make it." Rick tells him and I put my head down

"Why are you here? What do you want?" He asked Rick

"A chance."

"That's asking an awful lot these days." The man tells him

"I know."

"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission." The guy says to us

"We can do that."

"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed." He says and Daryl put his hand on my shoulder then walked out and grabbed our bags and they came back in, "Vi, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here."

"Rick Grimes." Rick introduced

"Dr. Edwin Jenner."

* * *

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asked him as we stood in the elevator

"There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself. But you look harmless enough. Except you." Jenner looked at Carl, "I'll have to keep my eye on you."

"Are we underground?" Carol asked him as we walked through a hallway

"Are you claustrophobic?" He asked her

"A little."

"Try not to think about it." He tells her and we enter a big computer room, "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." He says out loud and the lights turn on, "Welcome to zone 5."

"Where is everybody? The other doctors, the staff?" Rick asked

"I'm it. It's just me here."

"What about the person you were speaking with? Vi?" I asked him

"Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them...Welcome."

 _Hello, guests. Welcome._

"I'm all that's left. I'm sorry." Jenner tells us

* * *

"What's the point? If we were infected, we'd all be running a fever." I say to Jenner as he gets my arm ready

"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here. Let me just at least be thorough," He tells me and the syringe clicks, "All done."

I stand up but when I do I get hit with a wave a nausea and dizziness, "Ooh."

"Are you okay?" Jenner asked me and Jaqui takes a hold of me

"She hasn't eaten in days. None of us have."

* * *

We all sit around the table in the cafeteria and everyone is laughing and eating while I sit there staring at my plate picking at my food, I see a cup get set down in front of me and I look up to see Daryl pour some whiskey into it, I gave him a small smile and he squeezed my hand.

"You know, in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France." Dale tells Lori as she puts her hand on Carl's glass

"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then."

"What's it gonna hurt? Come on. Come on." Rick says to her and she looks at him then moves her hand, Dale only put a little in

"There you are, young lad"

I see Carl take a sip then set the glass down making a disgusted face, "Eww."

"That's my boy. That's my boy. Good boy." Lori tells him and poured the wine into her glass

"Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud." Shane says to him

"Not you, Glenn." Daryl says to him

"What?"

"Keep drinking, little man. I want to see how red your face can get." Daryl says and I smack him on the arm

"It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly." Rick tells us standing up

"He is more than just our host." T-Dog points out and they all cheer

"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc? All the...the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?" Shane asked Jenner

"We're celebrating, Shane. Don't need to do this now." Rick told him

"Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right? This was your move... Supposed to find all the answers. Instead we...we found him. Found one man. Why?"

"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left. Went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted." Jenner tells us

"Every last one?" Shane asked

"No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They... opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time."

"You didn't leave. Why?" Andrea asked him

"I just kept working. Hoping to do some good."

"Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man." Glenn tells Shane

* * *

"Most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here." Jenner tells us leading us down another hallway, "The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don't plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power. The same applies...If you shower, go easy on the hot water." He tells us and walked away

"Hot water?" Glenn asked with a smile

"That's what the man said." T-Dog adds and we all head off to find a room

Me and Daryl walked into one and I put my bag on the floor looking around, "You okay?" He asked me and I looked at him

"Trying to be" I replied and he nodded

"I'll go get you a cot, I'll take the couch." He told me and left

I was about to grab some clothes out of my bag when there was a knock at my door, I opened it and saw Jenner standing there, "Hi, I was wondering if I could talk to you." I motioned for him to come inside, "I looked over your blood work and I found something."

"What?"

"I found high levels of hCG in your blood otherwise called human chorionic gonadotropin, basically it's a rapid shift in hormones that triggers most pregnancy symptoms." He tells me and I look at him confused

"Are you saying I'm.."

"You're pregnant" He tells me and I sit down looking at the floor when Daryl walked in

"What's goin' on?"

"I'll leave you two alone." Jenner says and leaves

"Sammie?" Daryl asked putting the cot down and sits next to me

"He...I..."

"Sammie, what is it?" He asked and I looked at him

"I'm pregnant" I tell him and he stood up starting to pace

"Are you serious Sammie? Are you..." He stopped and looked at me, "Jim?" He asked and I nodded my head, he sighed and walked over kneeling in front of me, "What are you gonna do?"

"I know what you're thinking and it's not an option Daryl" I tell him and he pulled me into a hug

"I'm here for you, I hope you know that." He says to me and I nodded

"I know, I know," I pull away and look at him, "I'm gonna take a shower now" He nodded and I grabbed my clothes and walked to the shower room

As I stood there under the water I put my hand on my stomach _, "Don't cry for me, alright? Whatever this was or could of been, it was great, it was nice to feel happy again. You made me happy Sam,"_ I remember Jim say and I sat on the floor of the shower as it all came out and I cried. It may have only been a couple days and I didn't even know what was going on with us but I did care for him, he did make me happy and now, this baby was all I had left of him.

* * *

"Morning." Rick tells us walking in

"Are you hungover?" Carl asked him, "Mom said you'd be."

"Mom is right."

"Mom has that annoying habit." Lori says to Rick giving a smile

"Eggs. Powdered, but...but I do 'em good. I bet you can't tell." T-Dog tells us moving over to my plate but I shook my head no at him, "Protein helps the hangover." He says to Glenn putting some on his plate.

"Where'd all this come from?" Rick asked holding up some aspirin

"Jenner." Lori replied

"Could you help me, please?"

"He thought we could use it." Lori says and Daryl nudged me handing me a bottle of prenatal vitamins under the table, I smiled at him and he put his hand on my shoulder

"Don't ever ever ever let me drink again." Glenn moaned and I rubbed his back and Shane walked in

"Hey."

"Hey. Feel as bad as I do?" Rick asked him

"Worse."

"The hell happened to you? Your neck?" T-Dog asked and I saw a few scratch marks on his neck

"I must have done it in my sleep."

"Never seen you do that before." Rick tells him and I look over at Lori and saw her shift and stare at her plate

"Me neither. Not like me at all."

"Morning." Jenner greeted walking in

"Hey, doc. Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing..." Shane started to say

"But you will anyway."

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea says to him

* * *

"Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few." Jenner tells us as we walked into the computer room and see an image of a brain on the screen

"Is that a brain?" Carl asked him

"An extraordinary one. Not that it matters in the end. Take us in for E.I.V.." Jenner says to Vi

 _Enhanced internal view._

"What are those lights?" Shane asked him

"It's a person's life...experiences, memories. It's everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you...the thing that makes you unique. And human."

"You don't make sense ever?" Daryl asked him and I glanced at him

"Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."

"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick asked

"Yes. Or rather the playback of the vigil."

"This person died? Who?" Andrea asks

"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected...And volunteered to have us record the process. Vi, scan forward to the first event."

 _Scanning to first event._

"What is that?" I asked him seeing the brain being darkened a little

"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be... Gone."

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked Carol from next to me and Daryl put his hand on my back

"Yes." Carol answered and looked at me, I gave a small nod then looked at Andrea

"She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister." Lori mentioned to Jenner

"I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is. Scan to the second event."

 _Scanning to second event._

"The resurrection times vary wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute... Seven seconds."

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked

"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive?" Rick asked him

"You tell me."

"It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark." Rick says looking at the screen

"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part...That doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct. God." Jenner says and we see a streak go through the brain

"What was that?" Carol asked

"He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" Andrea says

"Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations."

 _"Powering down main screen and workstations._

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asked him

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal."

"Or the wrath of God?" Jaqui asked

"There is that."

"Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere." I said

"There are others, right? Other facilities?" Carol asked

"There may be some. People like me."

"But you don't know? How can you not know?" Rick asked

"Everything went down. Communications, directives... all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So it's not just here. There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?" Andrea asked him but he got quiet

"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk again." Daryl says

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but...that clock...It's counting down. What happens at zero?" Dale asked pointing at the clock on the wall

"The basement generators...they run out of fuel."

"And then?" Rick asked but Jenner got quiet again and walked away, "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"

 _When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur._

* * *

I sat in the room me and Daryl stayed in looking at the knife Jim gave me when Daryl sat in front of me, "You alright?" He asked

I shrugged and looked at him, "I don't really know what to feel right now, lost? Sad? Happy? I mean...we didn't even really establish what we were, if we were anything, then the walkers attacked the camp and he got bit and now..." I sighed, "Now I'm pregnant, with his child, he's dead and I'm..."

"Hey, you're gonna drive yourself crazy staying in your head like this," Daryl tells me grabbing my hand, "I told you I was here for you and I am, you're my baby sister I'll protect you until I die same goes for this baby, but...don't live with regret ok? Live knowing that Jim wouldn't want you grieving over him." He said and I gave a small smile

"Daryl Dixon, tough outer shell, soft on the inside." I tell and he lightly shoved me

"Don't get used to it." He says with a grin then suddenly the lights flicker and I don't feel the AC anymore

"What's going on?" I asked standing up and put my knife back in it's sheath and we walked over to the door and everyone was looking out as Jenner walked by

"Why is the air off? And the lights in our room?" Carol asked him

"What's going on? Why is everything turned off?" Daryl asked as well

"Energy use is being prioritized."

"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale asks

"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down."

"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl asked him catching up to him, "Hey man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down? How can a building do anything?"

"You'd be surprised."

"Rick?" Lori asked over the railing and we see him, Shane, Glenn and T-Dog down below as we follow Jenner down the stairs

"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule." Jenner stopped and took a drink of the whiskey he took from Daryl, "It was the French."

"What?" Andrea asked

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

"What happened?" Jaqui asks

"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs of fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" Jenner asked us and Shane followed him

"Let me tell you..."

"To hell with it, Shane. I don't even care. Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!" Rick tells us and Daryl nodded at me and we all started to walk away when an alarm goes off

"What's that? What's that?"

 _30 minutes to decontamination._

"Doc, what's going on here?" Daryl asked from in front of me

"Everybody, y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go! Go now!" Shane says and we start for the door again but suddenly it closes

"No. Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!" Glenn yells

I looked at Daryl and I saw the anger on his face and he moved over to Jenner, "You son of a bitch. You let us out of here!"

"Daryl!" I yelled at him as Shane pulled him away holding him back

"Hey, Jenner, open that door now." Rick tells him

"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed."

"Well, open the damn things." Rick says

"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that. It's better this way."

"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick asked him but Jenner started typing on his computer, "What happens in 28 minutes?!"

"You know what this place is?! We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever! In the event of a catastrophic power failure...in a terrorist attack, for example...H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"H.I.T.s?" Rick asked

"Vi, define."

 _H.I.T.s... high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000° and 6,000° and is used when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired._

"It sets the air on fire." Jenner says and I feel my legs give out, I braced myself against a computer and I feel Daryl help me as I sit, "No pain, an end to sorrow, grief...regret. Everything."

* * *

I hear something smash against the door, "Open the damn door!" Daryl yelled

"Daryl!" Shane yelled and they both start pounding on the door with axes

"You should've left well enough alone. It would've been so much easier."

"Easier for who?" Lori asked as she and Carol hugged Carl and Sophia

"All of you. You know what's out there...a short, brutal life and an agonizing death. Your...your sister... what was her name?" Jenner asked Andrea

"Amy."

"And you," He looked at me, "The father?" He asked and I see everyone look at me and I looked down

"Jim"

"Amy, Jim. You know what this does. You've seen it. Is that really what you want for your wife and son?" Jenner asked Rick

"I dont' want this"

"Can't make a dent." Shane says coming over

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner tells him

"Well, your head ain't!" Daryl yells lifting the axe but T-Dog and Rick hold him back

"Daryl!" I yell at him walking over and he looked at me as I put my hand on his shoulder

"You do want this. Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." Jenner says to Rick and we look at him in disbelief

"What? You really said that? After all your big talk?" Shane asked him

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?"

"There is no hope. There never was."

"There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere..." Rick says

"What part of "everything is gone" do you not understand?" Andrea asked him

"Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event." Jenner mentioned

"This isn't right. You can't just keep us here." Carol tells him crying

"One tiny moment...a millisecond. No pain." Jenner says to her

"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this."

"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner asked and Daryl pulled me to him as we hear a gun cock

"Shane, no!" Rick yells at him

"Out of the way, Rick! Stay out of my way! Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?!"

"Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here." Rick says to him

"Shane, you listen to him." Lori adds

"It's too late."

"He dies, we all...We all die! Shane! Shane!" Rick yells but Shane shoots at the computers and Daryl moves me to duck covering me, "Are you done now? Are you done?" Rick asked him

"Yeah, I guess we all are."

"I think you're lying." Rick says to Jenner

"What?"

"You're lying about no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?" Rick asked

"It doesn't matter."

"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?" Rick asked again

"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise...to her. My wife."

"Test subject 19 was your wife?" I asked him and Daryl moved back to the door and started hitting it with the axe again

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just...Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."

"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's...that's all we want...a choice, a chance. Let us keep trying as long as we can." Rick tells him and I see Jenner hesitate

"I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." Jenner says and the door opens

"Come on! Sammie!" Daryl yelled and I rushed over to him and we wait for the others but I see Jenner whisper something in Rick's ear as Lori goes over to them

"Hey, we've got four minutes left! Come on!" Glenn yells and I see T-Dog pull Jaqui towards us

"No no, I'm staying. I'm staying, sweetie." Jaqui says and I move over to her fighting against Daryl's grip

"But that's insane!" T-Dog tells her

"No, it's completely sane. For the first time in a long time. I'm not ending up like Jim and Amy. There's no time to argue and no point, not if you want to get out. Just get out. Get out." She tells him pushing him

"Jaqui.." I said through tears walking up to her

"You take care of yourself girl, and your baby." She says and I hug her

"I love you" I whispered to her and she put her hand on my face smiling then walked over to the computers and Daryl came down grabbing my hand and pulled me out of the room and we all make our way up the stairs to the top. Rick, Daryl, Shane, and T-Dog try to get the doors open.

"Daryl!" Shane yells to him tossing him an axe and they hit the windows but nothing happens and Shane shoots at it but it didn't do anything

"The glass won't break?" Sophia asked and I see Carol dig in her bag as I keep my hands on Sophia's shoulders

"It's ok sweetie"

"Rick, I have something that might help." Carol says to him

"Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it." Shane tells her but she ignored him

"Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." She says holding a grenade

"Sophia over here come on" I tell her and we moved behind a pillar then Carol comes over

"Look out!" Shane yells

"Shit!" I hear Rick yell then there's a loud bang and the glass shatters

"Sammie!" Daryl yelled and I ran over to him and he helped me out the window. We make our way through the bodies and I kill a walker heading to the vehicles, "Sammie get in the truck now!" Daryl tells me and I open the door getting in. Just then I see Andrea and Dale climb out of the window and Rick honked the RV's horn, "Down!" Daryl yells putting his hands on my head as we duck, then suddenly there's a loud explosion and the truck rocks a little. We look up and see the CDC as it burns, I look at Daryl, "Are you ok?" He asked and I nodded my head speechless, "Get behind the wheel, I'll take your bike" He says and I nod, normally I would argue that no one drives my bike but at this point I didn't care, Daryl got out and I scooted over then put my hand on my stomach and started the truck then we all drove off.


	3. Chapter 3

**Surviving the Dead: The Beginning**

We continue driving and eventually have to dump Daryl's truck, I was able to convince him that I would be okay to drive my bike so we syphoned the gas from the truck and some other vehicles and continued driving with me and Daryl in front.

As we come up on a traffic snarl Daryl drives ahead and to take a look then goes to the RV but get stopped when the RV hose blows again.

"I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water." Dale tells us

"Problem, Dale?" Shane asked him

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" Dale started to say but stops as I see Daryl look in the back of a vehicle, "Okay, that was dumb."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here..."

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl says cutting Shane off

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-Dog mentioned

"Maybe some water." Carol points out

"Or food." I add

"This is a graveyard. I don't know how I feel about this." Lori said

"All right, all right, here we go." T-Dog says walking away

"Come on, y'all. Just look around, gather what you can." Shane tells us and I walked over to the car Daryl was at

"I'm gonna head that way." I indicated to the cars up ahead

"Be careful"

"I will" I reassured him and walked to the cars with Andrea next to me and we see a little girls backpack on the ground and a baby bottle

"So...you're um..."

"Yeah" I tell her looking into a car

"And it's Jim's?" She asked and I look at her

"I only found out back at the CDC when Jenner...looked at my blood"

"Hell of a time for that to happen, I mean...a baby? In this world?" She asks

"Don't really have any other options. It sucks yes timing wise but...I don't know, I guess it's a way to keep a part of him with me" I tell her and she put her hand on my shoulder

"It'll be ok Sam"

I nod my head and walked away to another car when Daryl walked past me giving my shoulder a squeeze then walked up to T-Dog. I looked in the car I was at and found some clothes that looked like my size, I felt horrible taking them but I left my bag at the CDC. Just then I hear Rick whisper to us to get down and hide, I crawled under one but was worried about where Daryl was, I hear shuffling and growling as a small herd was walking past us. After a while it was quiet and I waited a few minutes for the all clear when suddenly I hear screaming, I peaked out from under the car and saw a walker going after Sophia I crawled out the same time Rick did and was about to run after her when Shane stopped me

"No Shane let me go." I said to him

"No way, Rick's got it, you need to be careful" He tells me and I look at him then Carol and Lori come out

"Lori, there are 2 walkers after my baby" Carol cried and Lori shushed her so the herd wouldn't come back.

* * *

"Why aren't we all out there looking? Why are we moving cars?" Carol asked Dale walking towards us

"We have to clear enough room so I can get the R.V. turned around as soon as it's running. Now that we have fuel we can double back to a bypass that Glenn flagged on the map."

"Going back's going to be easier than trying to get through this mess." Shane adds

"We're not going anywhere till my daughter gets back." Carol tells us and I put my hand on her shoulder

"Hey, that goes without saying."

"Rick and Daryl, they're on it, okay? Just a matter of time." Shane reassured her

"Can't be soon enough for me. I'm still freaked out from that herd that passed us by, or whatever you'd call it." Andrea says

"Yeah, what was that? All of them just marching along like that." Glenn asked

"A herd. That sounds about right. We've seen it. It's like the night camp got attacked. Some wandering pack, only fewer. Okay. Come on, people. We still got a lot to do. Let's stay on it. Let's go, come on." Shane tells us and I walked over to Carol

"We'll find her, I know you're worried but she's tough, just like you." I tell her putting my arm around her shoulders

"Thanks Sam. Congratulations by the way." She says and I give a small smile, "Hey, it's a good thing, even in this world."

"Thanks Carol. Do you need anything?" I asked and she shook her head, "I'll get you some water." I tell her and walked away then walked back handing her some water and she smiled and I headed back to the cars.

* * *

 _"The emergency alert system has been activated. The Office of Civil Defense has issued the following message: Normal broadcasting will cease immediately. This is a civil emergency."_ We hear come from the radio of the car Shane was in and we walk over

"Is that a local signal?" Glenn asked

"It's got to be within 50 miles of here." Dale points out

 _"Avoid anyone infected at all costs. Remain calm. Help is on the way. The emergency alert system has been activated."_

"Asshole." Shane says turning the radio off, "Okay, let's get back to work."

* * *

"You didn't find her?" I hear Carol ask as I see Rick and Daryl walk back to us, Daryl looked at me and I gave him a nod

"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light." Rick tells her

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods."

"Out in the dark's no good. We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people get lost." Daryl adds

"But she's 12. She can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?" Carol asked him and I put my hand on her back comforting her

"I know this is hard. But I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there. And we tracked her for a while. We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this."

'Is that blood?" I asked Daryl looking at his legs

"We took down a walker."

"Walker? Oh my God." Carol says

"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia." Rick informed

"How can you know that?" Andrea asked

"We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure." Daryl replied

"Oh God." Carol says sitting down on the railing and Lori sat next to her, "How could you just leave her out there to begin with? How could you just leave her?" Carol asked Rick and I felt a little anger in her voice

"Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance."

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol." Shane tells her

"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child. She's just a child."

"It was my only option. The only choice I could make." Rick adds

"I'm sure nobody doubts that." Shane said

"My little girl got left in the woods." Carol cried, me and Andrea went over and comforted her as Rick walked away

* * *

"Everybody takes a weapon." Rick tells us the next day unrolling a sack full of weapons

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?" Andrea asked and I rolled my eyes, she was starting to get on my last nerve with the gun thing

"We've been over that. Daryl, Rick and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles." Shane tells her

"It's not the trees I'm worried about."

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it." He adds

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark." Daryl says

"Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other." Rick told us and I grabbed my bag off my bike but Daryl walked over

"No"

"Daryl.." I started to say

"I ain't havin' ya go out there, it's dangerous."

"I'll be fine Daryl, please? I can't live with myself if something happens to her. Please?" I beg and he hesitated

"You stay by me, no matter what." He says and I nod

* * *

As we walked through the woods we come up on a tent and Rick motioned for us to get down, "She could be in there." Shane pointed out

"Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Daryl adds from next to me and we move forward

"Carol. Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear." Rick tells her as we get close to the tent

"Sophia, sweetie, are you in there? Sophia, it's mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's mommy." She says and I see Daryl holding his knife up as he unzips the tent slowly while I stand next to Carol

"Daryl? Daryl?" I asked him as Rick and Shane gag

"It ain't her." He said coming out

"What's in there?" I asked

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" Daryl asked then suddenly we hear church bells in the distance and we start running to them

"What direction?" Rick asked

"I think that way. I'm pretty sure. Damn, it's hard to tell out here." Shane says

"If we heard them, maybe Sophia did too." Carol mentioned

"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others." Glenn points out

"Or signaling they found her." Andrea adds

"She could be ringing them herself." Rick tells us and we move forward

"That can't be it. Got no steeple, no bells." Shane says to Rick when we neared the church but Rick continued and we followed, "Rick."

Rick, Shane and Daryl headed inside first and we followed, Rick killed one and Daryl made kissing noises at another then killed it as well and I looked at the walkers and ran out of the church leaning against it and threw up.

"Sophia!" I hear Rick yell then the bells went off again and I see the others run outside, Daryl stopped and came over to me putting his hand on my back, I nodded indicating I was okay

"A timer. It's on a timer." Daryl says as Glenn turned the bells off

"I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol tells us and headed into the church

"Sammie?" Daryl asked walking back over

"I'm okay, I just..."

"It's ok, it happens." He say pulling me into a hug.

"I feel like a wuss." I tell him and he scoffed

"You ain't a wuss, you're gonna be a mom, if anything that makes you tougher" He points out and I gave a small smile as we gather by a tree in the church's cemetery

"Y'all gonna follow the Creek Bed back, okay? Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough." Shane tells us walking over

"You're splitting us up. You sure?" Daryl asked him

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you."

"I want to stay too. I'm her friend." Carl says to him and Lori walks up to him

"Just be careful, okay?"

"I will." He said

"When did you start growing up?"

"Here, take this. Remember how to use it?" Rick asked her handing her a gun

"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed."

"Here, got a spare. Take it." Daryl tells her holding up a gun and I looked at him confused then I hear Andrea scoff as we started walking

* * *

"So this is it? This the whole plan?" Carol asked as we made our way through the woods

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups." Daryl replied

"Carrying knives and pointy sticks. I see you have a gun." Andrea points out to Lori

"Why, you want it? Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me." She says to her and Andrea takes the gun, "All of you. Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through. And I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did, or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently. Anybody? Y'all look to him and then you blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you." Lori tells us and I look at Daryl then see Andrea hand Lori the gun

"We should keep moving." She tells her and we start walking again

* * *

"You still worrying about it?" I asked her as she stopped

"It was a gunshot." Lori answered

"We all heard it." Daryl tells her

"Why one- Why just one gunshot?"

"Maybe they took down a walker." Daryl says

"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker, or Shane. They'd do it quietly."

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol asked

"There's nothing we can do about it, anyway. Can't run around these woods chasing echoes." Daryl tells them

"So, what do we do?" Lori asked him

"Same as we've been. Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway."

"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV." I say to her and she looked behind her then moved forward

"I'm sorry for what you're going through. I know how you feel." Andrea tells Carol

"I suppose you do- Thank you. The thought of her, out here by herself... It's the not knowing that's killin' me. I just keep hopin' and prayin' she doesn't wind up like Amy or Jim." Carol paused and looked at her then me, "Oh, God! That's the worst thing I ever said." She says to us

"We're all hoping and praying with you, for what it's worth." Andrea reassured her

"I'll tell ya what it's worth- Not a damn thing. It's a waste of time, all this hopin' and prayin'. We're gonna locate that little girl. She's gonna be just fine. Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord." Daryl said and I shook my head at him smacking him on the arm and we walk

* * *

"How much farther?" Andrea asked

"Not much...Maybe a hundred yards as the crow flies." Daryl replied and I kind of wondered away from them on accident lost in my own thoughts

"Too bad we're not crows. Oh...Oh!" I brushed the spiderweb off me and continued walking, "As the crow flies, my ass." I said and hear a low growl then turn seeing a walker come at me and I screamed

"Sammie!" I hear Daryl yell as I tired to push it away then backed up tripping over a log and it grabbed at my feet while I tried to grab my knife, but then I hear hoof beats and see the walker get hit with a bat

"Lori? Lori grimes? Whoa!" The girl on the horse asked and I looked at her

"Maggie?" I asked as Daryl rushed over to me helping me up checking me

"Sam?"

"I'm Lori." Lori tells her

"Rick sent me-you've got to come now."

"What?" Lori asked her

"There's been an accident- Carl's been shot. He's still alive but you've gotta come now. Rick needs you- Just come!" Maggie tells her and Lori took off her bag and headed over to the horse

"Whoa-whoa-whoa! We don't know this girl. You can't get on that horse." Daryl says to Lori and I stopped him

"I know her Daryl it's ok" I tell him and he looked at me confused

"Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl?" She asked us a Glenn, who was staring at her, nodded his head

"Uh-huh."

"Backtrack to Fairburn road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailbox- Name's Greene- Hi-yah!" Maggie urged the horse and they take off, just then the walker that attacked me sat up and wheezed

"Shut up." Daryl says shooting it in the head then walked up to me, "How do you know her?"

"Remember that summer I left home after Dad died?" I asked him and he nodded, "I ended up...well about 10 miles from here and met Maggie when a friend of mine went to hang out with her and some others" I tell him

"I see. Are you okay?" He asked and I nodded

"Yeah, yeah I'm okay."

"Let's go" He tells us and we continue walking

* * *

"Shot? What do ya mean shot?" Dale asked us we get back to the highway

"I don't know, Dale. I wasn't there. All I know is this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori." Glenn replied

"You let her?"

"Climbed down out of my asshole, man. Rick sent her. She knew Lori's name and Carl's plus Sammie knows her."

"I heard screams- Was that you?" Dale asked Andrea but she kept walking

"Sam got attacked by a walker. It was a close call." Glenn told him and he looked at me

"Sam, are you all right?" Dale asked and I nodded then made my way over to my bike setting my bag down then sat on the seat, I couldn't stop it I just ended up crying. I was way to damn close to getting bit or eaten, I feel a hand on my shoulder and I look up seeing Daryl there, he bent down and pulled me into his arms as I cried into his shoulder

"It's ok Sammie, you're okay. You're okay" He reassured me rubbing my back

"Can I ask you something Daryl?" I asked him

"Anything"

I pulled away and looked at him, "After the baby is born, if anything happens to me will you protect him or her?"

"Don't go talkin' like that, nothing is gonna happen to you"

"Daryl, please?" I begged and he put his hand on my face

"I'll protect it with my life, but so will you 'cause nothin' is gonna happen to you. I won't let it." He tells me and I nod my head

"I love you big brother"

"Love you too" He says

* * *

"I won't do it. We can't just leave." Carol tells us

"Carol, the group is split. We're scattered and weak." Dale told her

"What if she comes back and we're not here? It could happen."

"If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful." Andrea adds

"Okay. We gotta plan for this. I say tomorrow morning is soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us a chance to rig a big sign, leave her some supplies. I'll hold here tonight, stay with the RV." Daryl says and I nod my head in agreement

"If the RV is stayin', I am too." Dale agreed

"Thank you. Thank you." Carol says to us and I wrapped my arm around her shoulder

"I'm in." Andrea said

"Well, if you're all staying then I'm-" Glenn started to say but Dale cut him off

"Not you, Glenn- You're going. Take-take Carol's Cherokee."

"Me? Why is it always me?" Glenn asked

"You have to find this farm, reconnect with our people and see what's going on-but most important, you have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option. That cut has gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection. Get him to that farm. See if they have any antibiotics. Because if not, T-Dog will die, no joke." Dale tells him and Daryl walked away

"Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle." Daryl tells him throwing the rags at him then set a bag on the hood of Carol's car

"Why'd you wait till now to say anything? Got my brother's stash. Crystal, x- Don't need that. Got some kick ass painkillers. Doxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class. Merle got the clap on occasion."

"Yep, gotta love having a junkie brother" I add and Daryl lightly pushed me putting the bag back in the satchel on his bike

* * *

 **Daryl POV...**

I laid on the floor of the RV while Andrea was fiddling with her gun, Sammie was asleep in the seat across from her, I swear that girl could pass out anywhere, and Carol laid on the bed in the back crying, she offered it to my sister but Sammie rejected it telling Carol she needed to be comfortable and try to sleep, she always thought about other people before herself. I finally had enough so I sit up and look at Carol then hesitated before standing up and I put my crossbow over my shoulder

"I need my clip now." I tell Andrea and she hands it to me, "I'm gonna walk the road, look for the girl, if Sammie wakes up let her know and tell her I'll be right back." I said taking one last look at Carol and walked out

"I'm coming too." Andrea says to me coming out of the RV and I looked up at Dale

"I'm going for a walk. Shine some light in the forest. If she's out there, give her something to look at."

"You think that's a good idea right now?" He asked

"Dale." Andrea tells him and we walk away

* * *

"You really think we're gonna find Sophia?" Andrea asked me, I looked at her then forward

"You got that look on your face same as everybody else. What the hell's wrong with you people? We just started looking." I pointed out

"Well, do you?"

"It ain't the mountains of Tibet. It's Georgia. She could be holed up in a farmhouse somewhere. People get lost and they survive. It happens all the time." I mentioned

"She's only 12."

"Hell, I was younger than her and I got lost. Nine days in the woods eating berries, wiping my ass with poison oak." I told her

"They found you?"

"My old man was off on a bender with some waitress making Sammie." I tell her and she looked at me, "Merle was doing another stint in juvie. Didn't even know I was gone. I made my way back though. Went straight into the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. No worse for wear. Except my ass itched something awful."

She started laughing then looked at me, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that is a terrible story."She says and I started to laugh too

"Only difference is Sophia's got people looking for her. I call that an advantage."

"So Sam is.." She started to say

"My half sister, but my sister all the same. When my dad found out the waitress was pregnant he tried to get her to get rid of it but she refused and told him it was his responsibility now. Once she had Sammie, she gave her to my dad and took off."

"That's why you two are so close. Why aren't her and Merle that close?" She asked me

"Merle well he...he doesn't consider Sammie his sister, when he would be in juvie or at home, she would draw him pictures or ask him to play but he would shoo her off and she'd come crying to me. I told him to stop treating her like shit and start acting like her brother."

"I take it he didn't" She says

"He's gotten a little better but not fully"

"Does Sam know? About her mom?" She asked

"She found out when she was 16, that waitress contacted her apologizing but Sammie told her to fuck off and that she didn't need her."

"Sounds like Sam." She pointed out and I gave small smile.

* * *

"What the hell?" I asked when we saw a walker hanging from a tree "Got bit. Fever hit. World gone to shit. Might as well quit." Dumb ass didn't know enough to shoot himself in the head. Turned himself into a big swinging piece of bait. And a mess." I tell Andrea and hear her groan, "You all right?"

"Trying not to puke."

"Go ahead if you gotta." I say

"No, I'm fine. Let's just talk about something else for a minute. How'd you learn to shoot?" She asked me

"Gotta eat. That's one thing these walkers and us have in common. I guess it's the closest he's been to food since he turned. Hanging up there like a big pinata. The other geeks came and ate all the flesh off his legs." I point out and hear her vomit then cough

"I thought we were changing the subject."

"Call that payback for laughing about my itchy ass." I tell her

"There wasn't a lot that came up."

"Huh. Let's head back." I said

"Aren't you gonna..."

"No. He ain't hurting nobody. Ain't gonna waste an arrow either. He made his choice. Opted out. Let him hang." I say to her and started to walk but she moved to the walker, "You want to live now or not? It's just a question."

"An answer for an arrow. Fair?" She asked me and I nodded. "I don't know if I want to live or if I have to or if it's just a habit."

"Not much of an answer." I point out and shoot the walker killing it, "Waste of an arrow."

* * *

 **Samantha POV...**

I wake up when I hear the RV door shut and I see Carol walk in, "Carol? Everything ok?" I asked her and she sniffled

"They didn't find her" She replied in a hush voice and went back to the bed

"What do you mean?" I asked but she didn't answer then the door opened again and I see Daryl walk in, "Where were you?"

"Me and Andrea went to look for Sophia"

"You went out there? Just the 2 of you? What if..." I started to ask

"Hey, you ain't losin' me, not ever, you hear me?"

I nod my head, "Find anything?"

"Nothin', we're not giving up though"

As the morning approached we made our way to the farm that the others were at and pulled up to the house shutting our engines off as T-Dog and them came out.

"How is he?" I asked Lori

"He'll pull through, thanks to Hershel and his people."

"And Shane. We'd have lost Carl if not for him." Rick adds and I look over at Shane who was wearing overalls and a shaved haircut

"Thank God. We were so worried." Carol tells Lori as she hugged him and I hugged her after

"How'd it happen?" Dale asked Rick

"Hunting accident. That's all... Just a stupid accident."

* * *

"Blessed be God, father of our lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to him for the gift of our brother Otis, for his span of years, for his abundance of character; Otis, who gave his life to save a child's, now more than ever, our most precious asset. We thank you, God, for the peace he enjoys in your embrace. He died as he lived, in Grace." Hershel says over a grave they made for Otis, "Shane, will you speak for Otis?" He asked him

"I'm not good at it. I'm sorry."

"You were the last one with him. You shared his final moments. Please. I need to hear. I need to know his death had meaning." The lady named Patricia begs him

"Okay. We were about done. Almost out of ammo. We were down to pistols by then. I was limping. It was bad. Ankle all swollen up. "We've got to save the boy." See, that's what he said. He gave me his backpack. He shoved me ahead. "Run," he said. He said, "I'll take the rear. I'll cover you." And when I looked back..." He says and paused but I could tell from the look on his face, he wasn't honest about it one bit, "If not for Otis, I'd have never made it out alive. And that goes for Carl too. It was Otis. He saved us both. If any death ever had meaning, it was his."

* * *

"How long has this girl been lost?" Hershel asked us as we stood around the hood of Carol's jeep

"This'll be day three." Rick replied and Maggie walked over laying out a map

"County survey map. Shows terrain and elevations."

"This is perfect. We can finally get this thing organized. We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams." Rick says

"Not you. Not today. You gave three units of blood. You wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out. And your ankle..." He indicates to Shane, "Push it now, you'll be laid up a month, no good to anybody."

"Guess it's just me. I'm gonna head back to the creek, work my way from there." Daryl tells them

"I'll help you" I said and he shook his head, "Daryl..."

"I ain't gonna have you push yourself more then you are, I got it covered, you can get the tent set up" He tells me and I roll my eyes

"I can still be useful. I'll drive up to the interstate, see if Sophia wandered back." Shane adds

"All right, tomorrow then. We'll start doing this right." Rick pointed out

"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives. They need the gun training we've been promising them." Shane mentions

"I'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property. We've managed so far without turning this into an armed camp." Hershel says to him

"All due respect, you get a crowd of those things wandering in here..."

"Look, we're guests here. This is your property and we will respect that." Rick tells Hershel and set his gun on the hood and looked at Shane who hesitated then set his down as well, "First things first: Set camp, find Sophia."

"I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody's got to. What happens if we find her and she's bit? I think we should all be clear on how we handle that." Shane pointed out to Rick

"You do what has to be done."

"And her mother? What do you tell her?" Maggie asks Rick

"The truth."

"I'll gather and secure all the weapons. Make sure no one's carrying till we're at a practice range off site. I do request one rifleman on lookout. Dale's got experience." Shane tells Hershel

"Our people would feel safer, less inclined to carry a gun." Rick added and Hershel nods, "Thank you." Rick says and I walk over to the spot I laid our stuff stuff down at

"Mad at me?" Daryl asked from behind me

"No Daryl I get it, I just feel horrible not being out there with you helping to find her"

"I know Sammie, I need you and the baby safe first though" He says and I nod then see Maggie walking over, "I'll be back."

"Hey" She greeted

"Hi"

"Long time no see, it's been what?" She asked

"2 years" I reply with a smile that she returns

"I have to saddle up the horses for a run, wanna help? We can catch up"

"Sure" I tell her and we walk to the stable

"So how have you been?"

"Well things were going okay before the world turned to shit," I said and she chuckled, "But so far I'm holding on, hoping Carol's daughter is found safe, happy Carl is gonna be okay, and trying to not throw up every 5 minutes" I tell her and she looked at me confused as we reached the stable, "Oh um..I'm pregnant"

"Seriously? You're..."

"Yeah, yeah I am." I said and she smiled then hugged me

"Congratulations, horrible timing though" She pointed out and I laughed

"Yeah, so everyone keeps telling me"

"Daryl, is he the dad?" She asked me and I looked at her

"Ew! Maggie, Daryl's my brother. Gross"

"Oh my god..I'm sorry...I just...well then who is?" She asked me and I looked down

"It um..there was a man from our group back at a quarry we were staying at before here, Jim, we slept together, twice, and uh...when our camp got attacked he was bit. We were gonna bring him to the CDC for help," I say and she looked at me confused, "Rick's idea, but he couldn't do it, he couldn't fight it any longer so we um..we left...him" I tried to say but I was fighting back tears and she pulled me into a hug, "We left him by a tree to die, and now he'll never know.." I said crying and she rubbed my back.

"It's ok" She reassured me rubbing my back as I cried

* * *

"Looks like we've got us a swimmer." Dale informed us as we walk over and see a walker in the well, I looked away trying not to throw up and felt Lori put her hand on my back

"How long you think it has been down there?" Glenn asked

"Long enough to grow gills." Andrea answered

"We can't leave it in there. God knows what it's doing to the water." Lori points out

"We got to get it out." Rick adds

"Easy. Put a bullet in its head. I'll get a rope." T-Dog says

"Whoa whoa, guys. No." Maggie tells them

"Why not? It's a good plan." Glenn asked her

"It's a stupid plan. If that thing hasn't contaminated the water yet, blowing its brains out will finish the job." I mentioned

"She's right. Can't risk it." Shane agreed

"So it has to come out alive?" T-Dog asked him

"So to speak."

"How do we do that?" Glenn asked as well

* * *

"He's not going for it." Dale points out to Shane as he lowers a piece of ham into the well

"Maybe 'cause a canned ham don't kick and scream when you try to eat it." T-Dog mentioned and I snorted a little

"He's right. There's a reason the dead didn't come back to life and start raiding our cupboards." Lori says

"We need live bait." Andrea added and looked at Glenn and he realized where she was going

"Have I mentioned that I really like your new haircut? You have a nice shaped head." Glenn tells Shane as he ties a rope around Glenn's waist

"Don't worry about it, bud. We're gonna get you out of here in one piece."

"Living piece. That living part is important." Glenn mentioned and we all grab the rope, "Nice and slow, please."

"We got you." I reassured him

"Oh, you people are crazy." Maggie tells us and I look at her

"You have no idea"

"You want to get it out of your well or not?" Shane asked her

"Give us an eye there, Maggie." Dale says to her and she moved to the well as Glenn goes in

"Little lower. Little more." Maggie tells us then suddenly the pump breaks and the rope slips, Shane and T-Dog make a dive for it trying to catch it

"Get me out of here!" I hear Glenn shout from the well as we all hold on to the pump and pull, "Get it off. Get off. Get off! Get me out! Oh my God. Oh my God. Guys, get me out! Come on, you guys. Get me out! Oh God. Oh God. Oh my God! Get me out of here!"

"Pull! Pull! Pull! Pull! Pull! Let's go, pull." we all shout as Shane starts pulling on the rope with T-Dog's help then we see Glenn grab the edge and climb out and we all rush over to him

"Are you okay?" I asked him checking for bites

"Back to the drawing board." Dale points out and Glenn stands up

"Says you." He hands him the rope and walked away, we look in and see the rope around the walkers neck

* * *

"Come on, guys, pull." T-Dog tells us as we try to pull on the rope

"Come on, y'all." Shane adds

"Watch out, Sam." Shane tells me as I stand at the top of the well and the walker comes out and I back up

"Nice and easy. Just a little more." I tell them but the walker stops, "It's stuck! Come on."

"Come on, pull!" T-Dog urged but I see the walker start to split and the bottom half falls back into the well and I turn around throwing up

"We should seal off this well." Dale says

"Yeah, might be a good idea." Shane agrees and Maggie came over to me rubbing my back

"I'm okay" I tell her

"So what do we do about..." Andrea starts to say but I see T-Dog beat the walkers head with a pipe and I turn around again putting my hand over my mouth

"Good thing we didn't do anything stupid like shoot it." I hear T-Dog say and he dropped the pipe

"Come on let's get you inside, you need to sit down and relax" Maggie says to me and I nod my head and we walk to the house

TWD

I sat with Carol at the table in the RV when the door opened and Daryl walked in looking around, "I cleaned up. Wanted it to be nice for her." Carol tells him

"For a second I thought I was in the wrong place." He says and I chuckled, he put a bottle on the counter with a flower in it

"A flower?" Carol asked him

"It's a Cherokee rose. The story is that when American soldiers were moving Indians off their land on the trail of tears the Cherokee mothers were grieving and crying so much 'cause they were losing their little ones along the way from exposure and disease and starvation. A lot of them just disappeared. So the elders, they said a prayer; asked for a sign to uplift the mothers' spirits, give them strength and hope. The next day this rose started to grow right where the mothers' tears fell. I'm not fool enough to think there's any flowers blooming for our brother. But I believe this one bloomed for your little girl." He tells her and I smile at him as Carol wipes away tears, under that tough exterior he really does care, "She's gonna really like it in here." He adds then walks out and I follow him

"Hey" I call to him and he stopped, "Anything?" I asked him and he shook his head

"Found a cabin, looked like someone stayed there then moved on, I'll try again tomorrow" He tells me and I put my hand on my stomach as a tiny pain shot through, "You alright?"

"Um...yeah I think so." I tell him and another one happened but a bit more painful and I winced

"Here sit down, sit sit" Daryl tells me and I sit on one of the coolers holding my stomach as the pain increased, "Sammie what's going on?"

"I don't...Ahhhh!" I screamed as the cramping pain turned into a stabbing pain throughout my body

"Sammie? Sammie!"

"Ahhhh!" I screamed again and this time Dale and T-Dog came over

"What's going on?" Dale asked as Daryl held me

"Get Hershel now!" Daryl yelled and T-Dog ran into the house, "It's ok Sammie I got you" Daryl comforted me and Hershel came outside

"What happened?" He asked Daryl as he knelt down next to me

"I don't know she put her hand on her stomach and started screaming."

"Sam, I'm gonna need you to breathe and talk to me, what does it feel like?" Hershel asked me and I tried to take a deep breath but the pain hurt to much

"Cramping...really painful cramping" I managed to get out

"Get her in the house now" Hershel ordered, Daryl and Dale helped me stand and walked me into the house, "Here put her in this room" He tells them and they lead me into an empty room and Daryl sat me on the bed

"Doc what's going on?" Daryl asked him

"Patricia, I need the dialaters and an I.V" Hershel says ignoring Daryl

"Daryl?" I asked and he grabbed my hand

"I'm right here, it's ok" He reassured but I kept feeling weaker and everything became hazy.

"We need to work now, I'm sorry Daryl but you're gonna have to go outside" I hear Hershel tell him as I passed out

 **Daryl POV...**

I paced back and forth outside the room chewing on the skin by my thumb when Rick and everyone walked over.

"What happened?" Maggie asked

"I don't know, she just hunched over in pain" I tell her and the door opened

"Maggie, Hershel needs you" Patricia tells her and I glance at her hands

"Is that blood?" I asked and she looked at me

"Maggie now" She said ignoring me and Maggie went into the room

"Is that blood? Sammie!" I yelled going to move forward but Rick stopped me, "Sammie!" I yelled again and the door shut, I shoved Rick off of me and hit the wall in anger

An hour went by and the others were sitting outside the room with me as I continued to pace when the bedroom door opened then Hershel walked out

"What happened?" I asked him

"I'm sorry Daryl, I did everything I could, but she lost the baby"

I leaned against the table with my hand, "No" I said but before he could respond I stormed out of the house wanting to kill something, I walked as far away as I could then stopped at a tree taking my knife out and stabbed it over and over again before leaning on it and cried, I never cry, but my little sister just lost something that mattered the most to her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Surviving the Dead: The Beginning**

 _"Mommy!" I hear my son say as he ran into the kitchen and hugged me_

 _"Hey buddy..oof" I grunted as he rammed into my side_

 _"Hey careful with your mom little guy"_

 _"Sorry mommy" My son says and I kiss the top of his head_

 _"It's ok sweetie. How was school?"_

 _"It was awesome, Mr. Jenner told me I'm one of the smartest kids in his class" He says with a big grin_

 _"Well you are the smartest, how about you go wash up while mom finishes dinner"_

 _"Okay daddy" Our son tells him and ran out of the kitchen_

 _"So" My husband puts his hands on my hips, "How was your day?"_

 _"Nothing to exciting, rearranged the baby's room again, Daryl came over and visited for a bit, and other then that I relaxed on the couch after going for a walk. You?"_

 _"Good, other then an annoying customer who came into the shop today but good otherwise, couldn't wait to come home though."_

 _"Oh yeah? Why's that?" I asked him and he kissed me_

 _"Because I have a beautiful wife waiting for me at home"_

 _"Oh stop it Jim" I tell him and he kissed me, then we hear our son run back into the room_

 _"Alright buddy come on" He tells our son picking him up and started to walk away_

 _"Wait, where are you going? Dinners ready" I asked him and they faced me_

 _"We gotta go mommy, Amy and Jaqui are waiting for us" My son says and I look at him confused_

 _"Wait, what?" I asked and they walk to the door, "What are you talking about?"_

 _"Don't worry, I'll see you later" Jim tells me and they walked out the door_

 _"Jim, wait.."_

I wake up with a start and look around before my eyes landed on Daryl, "Hey, you're awake" He says and I look at him confused

"Daryl? Where am I?"

"You're in the house, have been for 10 hours now" He says and I continue looking at him confused

"What happened?" I asked him and he looked down then at me

"I'm sorry Sammie, I'm so sorry but um..." He starts to say but after looking at his face I knew

"No" I whispered and put my hand on my stomach, "No, no" I repeated then started crying and I feel Daryl wrap his arms around me

"I'm sorry Sammie" He tells me and I continue to cry, the last thing I had left of Jim was now gone, my baby was gone.

* * *

The next day I laid in bed just staring at the ceiling, feeling well empty I suppose. Hershel told me I can start moving around later today but I would have to take it easy for about a week. Daryl has been checking up on me otherwise it's been Maggie and the others but I didn't want to talk to anyone, Hershel told me it wasn't my fault that these things just happen and there was nothing I could have done.

"Can I come in?" Daryl asked knocking on the door

"I guess"

He shut the door and sat on the bed next to me, "I'm gonna head out and see if I can find anything to lead me to Sophia"

"Ok"

He sighed and grabbed my hand, "Sammie, I know there isn't anything I can say to help you through this, but don't shut me out and don't shut down."

I turn my head and look at him, "Daryl I just lost the last thing I had of Jim, I lost a part of myself. How can I not shut down?"

"I don't know, but blaming yourself is not gonna help, you heard Hershel, it wasn't your fault"

"But you told me not to push myself, then I get attacked by that walker, I strained myself when we lowered Glenn into the well, and I rode my bike. It is my fault Daryl, if I had just listened then maybe..." I tell him fighting tears, "Maybe I wouldn't have lost my baby" I said and sniffled wiping tears away, I feel him move to hug me but I pushed him away, "Don't hug me Daryl, please, I'm barely holding on as it is and if you hug me I'll lose it"

"Ok, I'll try not to be gone to long. Try and rest" He says and all I could do was nod my head, he got up and left the room. I put my head back again and looked at the ceiling, I know Daryl's right but I just can't not blame myself.

"I'm sorry Jim" I said and started to cry again eventually falling asleep

* * *

 **Daryl POV...**

I was riding through the woods on one of Hershel's horses, I didn't even ask if I could use one, I just saddled it up and took off. After I shot a squirrel and pulled it off the tree my mind went to Sammie, I couldn't even begin to try and help her through this, she blamed herself and she shouldnt, she did nothing wrong. I just want to stop her pain but I can't, even when we were kids whenever she would get hurt or Merle was being an ass or our dad would yell at her I would try and comfort her, no matter what I would have her back. I was taken out of my thoughts when I looked down the ridge and saw a doll down by the water, I hopped off the horse then took my crossbow off and made my way down over to it and picked it up, "Sophia!" I called but got nothing so I made my way back up and got on the horse. Some birds flew up from the ground and the horse started to spook, "Whoa. Easy easy." I tell it and ushered it to move again but suddenly and snake popped up from the ground scaring the horse and it started bucking, "Whoa whoa whoa." I said but next thing I knew I got flung off rolling down the ridge and sliding down the little water fall. I laid there trying not to move as one of my handmade bolts was stuck in my side, "Son of a bitch."

I managed to get up and made my way over to the sand taking out my knife and cutting the sleeves of my shirt off tying them together then tying it around my waist and around the arrow, fuck it hurt like hell. I looked up the ridge, I had a hell of a climb to go, I held my side and stood up grabbing a stick to support myself but then I hear a rustling sound from next to me in the woods, I reached behind me for my crossbow but realized it wasn't there so I made my way back over to the water using the stick to look for it. I finally found it and lifted it out of the water, I would have been pissed if I lost this, Sammie got it for me for my birthday. I made my way out of the water again and stood at the base of the ridge then started climbing.

I looked down at one point seeing how high up I was then looked up, Oh, come on. You've done half. Stop being such a pussy. Come on." I told myself then I pushed myself to grab hold of another tree but my foot slid a little on the dirt, I tried again but lost my footing and started to roll down the hill landing back at the bottom of the ridge knocking myself out.

"Why don't you pull that arrow out, dummy? You could bind your wound better." I hear my brother's voice tell me as I came to

"Merle."

"What's going on here? You taking a siesta or something?" He asked

"A shitty day, bro."

"Like me to get your pillow? Maybe rub your feet?" He asks

"Screw you."

"Huh-uh. You're the one screwed from the looks of it. All them years I spent trying to make a man of you, this is what I get? Look at you. Lying in the dirt like a used rubber. You're gonna die out here, brother. And for what?" He asked me

"A girl. They lost a little girl." I tell him

"So you got a thing for little girls now?"

"Shut up." I said

"'Cause I noticed you ain't out looking for old Merle no more, neither is Sam."

"Tried like hell to find you, bro." I pointed out

"Like hell you did. You split, man. Lit out first chance you got."

"You lit out. All you had to do was wait. We went back for you. Rick and I, we did right by you." I argued

"This the same Rick that cuffed me to the rooftop in the first place? Forced me to cut off my own hand? This him we're talking about here? You his bitch now?" He asked me

"I ain't nobody's bitch."

"You're Sam's bitch, little sis has got you wrapped around her finger. You're a joke is what you are, playing errand boy to a bunch of pansy-asses, niggers and democrats. You're nothing but a freak to them. Redneck trash. That's all you are. They're laughing at you behind your back. You know that, don't you? I got a little news for you, son. One day they gonna scrape you off their heels like you was dog shit." He says and I start to drift off again but he smacked my chest, "Hey. They ain't your kin, your blood. Hell, you had any damn nuts in that sack of yours, you'd got back there and shoot your pal Rick in the face for me. Now you listen to me. Ain't nobody ever gonna care about you except me, little brother. Nobody ever will, well maybe Sam. Come on, get up on your feet before I have to kick your teeth in." He stands up and kicked my foot then grabbed it, "Let's go."

He continued pulling on my foot but when I came to I see a walker trying to bite at my foot through my boot, I scrambled and kicked it in the head, as I reached for my crossbow it landed on me and I hit it in the side a few times then the face and rolled both of us over, it grabbed at my head rolling us back and I kicked it off then stood up seeing another one coming, I hit the one in front on me with a long stick knocking it back then I tackled it to the ground and smashed his head with the stick. As the other one gets closer I grab the arrow ing my side pulling it out the front trying to ignore the pain, grabbed my crossbow, knocked the arrow and shot it in the head.

I sat at the bottom of the ridge taking my top shirt off, folded it and pressed it to the wound then tied it , "Son of a bitch was right." I said and moved to a log sitting down then cutting the squirrel open and started to eat the raw meat. I grabbed the doll, took the strings out of my boots, then cut the ears off the walkers putting them on the string then around my neck looking up at the ridge and started to climb again.

I hear some birds squawk and I look up, "Please, don't feed the birds." I hear Merle's voice again and I see him at the top, "What's the matter, Darylina? That all you got in you? Throw away that purse and climb."

"I liked it better when you was missing."

"Come on, don't be like that. I'm on your side." He tells me as I grab a tree and brace myself to push up

"Yeah? Since when?"

"Hell, since the day you were born, baby brother. Somebody had to look after your worthless ass." He says and I scoffed

"You never took care of me. You talk a big game but you was never there, not for Sammie either. Hell, you ain't here now. Guess some things never change."

"Sam can look after herself and I'll tell you what- I'm as real as your chupacabra." He mentioned

"I know what I saw."

"And I'm sure them shrooms you ate had nothing to do with it, right?" He asked me

"You'd best shut the hell up." I warned him

"Or what? You're gonna come up here and shut my mouth for me?" He asked and I continued to climb, "Well, come on and do it then, if you think you're man enough. Hey, kick off them damn high heels and climb, son." He says and laughed, "You know what? If I were you I'd take a pause for the cause, brother. 'Cause I just don't think you're gonna make it to the top." He tells me and I swung myself around a small tree, "Come on. Come on, little brother. Grab your friend Rick's hand."

I put my hand on the top of the ridge and pulled myself up, "Yeah, you'd better run."

* * *

 **Samantha POV...**

Hershel told me I was finally able to get up and move around so Maggie helped me stand and move around. Before we got out of the house I saw a glances from Lori and Carol but they continued what they were doing, probably out of curtesy and the same when I got outside with the others.

"Where you wanna go?" Maggie asked me and I looked at her

"I think I'll head over to my tent and change, I can make it by myself"

"Are you sure?" She asks

"Yeah, I'm okay, I'll yell if I need help." I tell her and she nods heading back into the house and I made my way over to my tent

After I painfully got fresh clothes on I walked out of my tent and see Andrea on top of the RV holding a rifle, I rolled my eyes and walked over to the picnic table T-Dog was at and sat down, "Need any help?" I asked him and he looked at me with hesitation, "T-Dog, I can manage using my arms." I tell him and he nodded before handing me some vegetables to cut.

"Walker. Walker!" Andrea yells from the top of the RV and we all look towards the field

"Just the one?" Rick asked her as he walked over

"I bet I can nail it from here."

"No no, Andrea. Put the gun down." Rick tells her, Glenn grabbed another rifle and T-Dog grabbed a bat, I stood up and went to walk with them but T-Dog stopped me shaking his head, I sighed and moved over to the RV

"You'd best let us handle this." Shane says walking over

"Shane, hold up. Hershel wants to deal with walkers."

"What for, man? We got it covered." Shane says to Rick as they make their way into the field with Rick following after. I hear the rifle Andrea was holding and I looked up at her as she moves to lay on her stomach

"Andrea, don't." Dale says to her

"Back off, Dale." She says and after a few moments she fires but then I hear Rick shouting at her.

"What on earth's going on out here?" I hear Hershel shout as they all come out of the house.

She climbed down from the RV and both her and Dale ran to Rick and them while I stayed back, I see Rick and Shane dragging someone over and I see it is Daryl

"Daryl!" I yelled running over

"He's okay she just grazed him" Shane tells me as they bring him to the house and I face Andrea

"Sam I'm-"

I didn't let her finish before I connected my fist with her face, "You bitch!" I yelled and went to swing again but T-Dog grabbed my shoulders holding me back

"Come on" He says and I reluctantly went with him as we walked into the house and headed to the room Daryl was in while Hershel worked on him.

"I found it washed up on the creek bed right there. She must have dropped it crossing there somewhere." Daryl points out to Rick looking at the map

"Cuts the grid almost in half." Rick says to Shane

"Yeah, you're welcome." Daryl tells them

"How's he looking?" I asked Hershel as I stood there in the corner

"I had no idea we'd be going through the antibiotics so quickly. Any idea what happened to my horse?"

"Yeah, the one who almost killed me? If it's smart, it left the country."

"We call that one Nelly, as in nervous Nelly. I could have told you she'd throw you if you'd bothered to ask. It's a wonder you people have survived this long." Hershel says after washing his hands and looked at me, "He'll be all right." He said and they left

"How ya doin'?" I asked staying where I was

"Like I fell down a ridge sticking an arrow in my side then getting shot"

I rolled my eyes and moved over sitting next to him, "Damn it Daryl"

"I'm okay Sammie. Are you okay?" He asked and I looked down

"I'm trying to be, physically I'm okay...ish, emotionally...I don't know but I'm trying"

He grabbed my hand and I looked at him, "It'll get better, I ain't gonna let you fall"

"Thanks big brother" I tell him and he gave a small smile, "I'll let you rest and I'll check on you later." I said and left the room

* * *

We all sat around the table eating the food Carol and Lori made, it was quite the awkward silence, every now and then I would see Andrea look at me. Should I feel bad for punching her? No, she was told not to shoot and she nearly killed my brother, she's lucky T-Dog held me back.

"Does anybody know how to play guitar?" Glenn asked trying to break the silence, "Dale found a cool one. Somebody's got to know how to play."

"Otis did." Patricia answered and I looked at her

"Yes, and he was very good too." Hershel says to her and I look back down at my food

Later Carol told me she was gonna bring Daryl a plate of food and I offered to help clean up, Lori refused but I told her I would be fine, to be honest I was feeling a little better, psychically anyways.

After I was finished I headed to the room Daryl was in and stopped at the door when I heard Carol talking to him, "You need to know something. You did more for my little girl today than her own daddy ever did in his whole life." She tells him and I gave a sad smile

"I didn't do anything Rick or Shane wouldn't have done."

"I know. You're every bit as good as them. Every bit." She adds and walked out seeing me, she put her hand on my arm and walked away and I went into the room

"She's right you know" I tell him and he turned to look at me but not before I looked at the scares on his back from our dad, "Can I stay in here tonight? I don't want to be alone" I asked him and he nodded his head, I sat in the big chair that was in the room and we talked while he ate then shortly after I fell asleep.

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who is reading the story and liking it so far. I just want to say I hope I didn't offend anyone with adding in a miscarriage, if I did I'm sorry, truly and I hope you will continue to enjoy.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Surviving the Dead: The Beginning**

 **WARNING: Thoughts of suicide in the beginning of this chapter**

 **Daryl POV...**

I laid in my tent taking one of my arrows and stabbing at the screen bored out of my mind, "Hey." I hear Andrea say coming into the tent, "This is not that great, but..." She says handing me a book

"What, no pictures?"

"I'm so sorry. I feel like shit." She tells me

"Yeah, you and me both."

"I don't expect you to forgive me, but if there's anything I can do..." She starts to say

"You were trying to protect the group. We're good."

"Sam's mad at me though" She says and I notice her eye

"She give you that?" I asked her

"Yeah, T-Dog held her back from hitting me again

"Sounds like her," I tell her and she started to walk out, "But hey, shoot me again, and you'd best pray I'm dead."

 **Samantha POV...**

"Get any peaches or jerky?" I asked Daryl walking into his tent and sitting on the floor

"Nah" He said looking at a book, I tossed a peach onto his chest and he looked at me, "What about you?" He asked and I hold up some jerky, "You healing okay?"

"Slowly, the cramping hurts every now and then but it's bearable"

"How about emotionally?" He asked and I sighed

"I'm trying, it's a roller coaster but I'm getting there, I will get there." I tell him and he nods his head

* * *

After Hershel said it would be okay that I take a bath in the house to clean myself up I laid there looking at the ceiling. I lied to Daryl earlier, I told him I was okay but truth was I was horrible, I hurt, I lost a part of me, a part of Jim. I was broken and shattered, I couldn't even...feel right now. I laid my head back even further and slowly slid down the tub, holding my breath at first then I just let go. I felt myself starting to struggle for air but I held myself under, I opened my eyes and saw Jim standing above the water reaching his hand to me, I went to grab for it when suddenly I was pulled up and I started coughing then saw Maggie.

"Sam? Are you okay?" She asked and I coughed again then started to cry and she pulled me to her into a hug.

TWD

I sat on Maggie's bed in a pair of her pj's wrapped up in a blanket staring off into space when she walked in handing me a cup of tea, "Here"

"Thanks" I took a sip then set it down

"What were you thinking Sam? Trying to kill yourself when Daryl..."

"I lied to him" I cut her off and she looked at me, "I told him I was fine but I'm not, I can't stop hurting Maggie. I lost something when I lost my baby and I can't get it back"

"But killing yourself? Think of what that would do to Daryl, or Merle"

I chuckled a little, "Merle doesn't care about me, never has. I'm sure if I told him what happened he would tell me that's what I get for fooling around." I said and sighed, "How can I make it stop Maggie? How can I move on from this and be okay?"

She held my hand and I looked at her, "I didn't want to tell you this but after...it happened I told my dad to let me...bury the baby underneath an oak tree in our yard, in case you wanted to..." She says and I put my head down and sniffled, "I'm sorry I just thought..."

I cut her off and pulled her into a hug, "Thank you Maggie"

"You're welcome."

"Can you show me?" I asked her and she nodded her head, we got up and walked outside a little ways away from our set up and she showed me a spot by an oak tree that had a small pile of rocks under it. She squeezed my hand and walked away as I sat down, didn't say anything just sat there looking at the rocks then I felt tears in my eyes, "I'm sorry Jim, I'm so so sorry" I cried and cried until I feel a hand on my shoulder, I look and see Daryl there and he sits down next to me, I wrap my arms around him and cried into his shoulder.

"It's okay Sammie, it'll be okay. I love you" He says

* * *

I felt a little better, I think what I needed was to see that, to get closure, I told Daryl about what I tried to do in the bath. He was pissed off at first then calmed down and hugged me again. I will get there, I know that it wasn't my fault, wasn't anybody's fault, Jim wouldn't want me like this, he would want me to be happy and keep living.

The next day we all sat around our camp while Carol cooked us breakfast, I was sitting next to Daryl when Glenn stood up.

"Uh guys, so...the barn's full of walkers" He tells us and we all look at him

* * *

We all stand next by the barn as Shane looked in but then moved back walking over to Rick, "You cannot tell me you're all right with this."

"No I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land."

"This is our lives!"

"Lower your voice." Glenn warns

"We can't just sweep this under the rug." Andrea points out

"It ain't right. Not remotely. Okay, we've either got to go in there, we've got to make things right or we've just got to go. Now we have been talking about fort Benning for a long time..."

"We can't go." Rick says cutting Shane off

"Why, Rick? Why?"

"Because my daughter is still out there." Carol tells him and I put my hand on her shoulder

"Okay. Okay, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility."

"We're not leaving Sophia behind." I add

"I'm close to finding this girl. I just found her damn doll two days ago." Daryl tells him

"You found her doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll."

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about." Daryl says getting close to him but Rick outs his arm up to hold him back

"I'm just saying what needs to be said. You get a good lead, it's in the first 48 hours." Shane says and Rick tries to calm him down

"Shane, stop."

"Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there and saw you coming all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction." Shane finishes and Daryl tried to push past Rick to get to him, everyone starts shouting and I pull Daryl back

"Keep your hands off me." Shane says to Lori

"Now just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out." Rick tells him

"What are you gonna figure out?!" Shane asked him moving to him but Lori pushed him back

"If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land."

"Hershel sees those things in there as people... Sick people... His wife, his stepson." Dale mentioned

"You knew?" Rick asked him

"Yesterday I talked to Hershel."

"And you waited the night?" Shane asks as well

"I thought we could survive one more night. We did. I was waiting till this morning to say something. But Glenn wanted to be the one."

"The man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things are alive or no." Shane yells and the barn doors start to shake and we hear growling

* * *

I was making my way back to my tent when I saw Daryl storming over heading to his, "Daryl? What's up?"

"Nothin'"

"Okay?" I asked to myself and started to walk away

"Carol doesn't think we're gonna find Sophia" He tells me and I face him, "She's giving up"

"I don't blame her Daryl, it's been what? Weeks? You find a doll and a cabin that looked like someone was staying in it but then what? Now I'm not saying Shane or Carol are right but...I don't know I guess I'm losing hope too." I tell him and he walked over

"I thought you were on my side with this"

"Daryl I am always on your side, you know I am, but it's like with Merle. We don't know where he is or if he's still alive, it's the same situation. The only difference is Merle knows how to take care of himself, Sophia doesn't. Now it...it kills me not being able to bring Sophia back to Carol and I want nothing more then for us to get a win but I...I can't shake this horrible feeling that I'm gonna have to see a mother lose her child, like I lost mine." I said and he pulled me into a hug

"I'm sorry." He grumbled and I sniffled fighting back tears

"It's ok"

* * *

"You see it?" Daryl asked Carol and I as we were walking

"See what?" Carol asked and he pointed to a Cherokee Rose

"I'll find her." He says and I gave him a small smile and he looked at Carol, "Hey, I'm sorry about what happened this morning."

"You wanted to look for her. Why?" She asked him, "This whole time I've wanted to ask you."

"'Cause I think she's still out there. Truth is, what else I got to do?"

Carol moves forward and touches one of the roses, "We'll find her. We will. I see it." She tells him and plucked the flower then walked over and handed it to me, I smiled and she pulled me into a hug

* * *

"You haven't seen Rick?" I hear Glenn ask Andrea as her and T-Dog walked up to him and we followed after

"He went off with Hershel. We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago."

"Yeah you were. What the hell?" Daryl asked her

"Rick told us he was going out." Carol adds

"Damn it. Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail." Daryl points out and we see Shane walking over with the bag of guns, "Oh, here we go. What's all this?" Daryl asked him

"You with me, man?" Shane asked him handing him a shot gun

"Yeah."

"Time to grow up. You already got yours?" Shane asked Andrea

"Yeah. Where's Dale?"

"He's on his way." He answered and handed me a gun

"Thought we couldn't carry." T-Dog says to him and Shane handed him a gun as well

"We can and we have to. Look, it was one thing sitting around here picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But now we know it ain't. How about you, man? You gonna protect yours?" He asked Glenn who looked at Maggie then grabbed the gun, "That's it. Can you shoot?" He asked Maggie

"Can you stop? You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight."

"We have to stay, Shane." Carl tells him

"What is this?" Lori asked coming out of the house as Shane knelt in front of Carl

"We ain't going anywhere, okay? Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Okay? He... Well, he's gonna have to. Now we need to find Sophia. Am I right? Huh? Now I want you to take this." He tells Carl holding out a gun and I moved over the same time Lori did, "You take it, Carl, and you keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on, take the gun and do it." He tells him and Lori pulled Carl back and I kept him behind me

"Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make." Lori tells Shane

"Oh shit." T-Dog says and we look out into the field seeing Rick, Hershel and Jimmy walk with 2 walkers

"What is that? What is that?" Shane asked and started running with us following

"Shane!" Lori yelled after him

"What the hell are you doing?" Shane yelled at Rick

"Shane, just back off."

"Why do your people have guns?" Hershel asked

"Are you kidding me? You see? You see what they're holding onto?" Shane asked Hershel

"I see who I'm holding onto."

"No, man, you don't." Shane points out to him

"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk." Rick tells him

"What you want to talk about, Rick? These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel nothing for them 'cause all they do, they kill! These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy. They killed Jim. They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us."

"Shane, shut up!"

"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane asked him shooting the walker in the gut 3 times

"No! Stop it!" Rick yelled

"That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still coming?" Shane asked shooting it again, "That's its heart," again, "Its lungs. Why is it still coming?" He shoots it again

"Shane, enough." Rick tells him

"Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough." Shane says and shoots the walker in the head, "Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" He yells at Carol and I put my hand on her shoulder, "Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us. Enough. Rick, it ain't like it was before! Now if y'all want to live, if you want to survive, you got to fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here, right now." He says and goes over to the barn and started beating on the chain

"Take the snare pole. Hershel, take the snare pole." Rick tells Hershel who just stands there as Shane continues, "Hershel, listen to me, man, please. Take it now. Hershel! Take it! No, Shane. Do not do this, brother. Wait! Don't do it! Please!"

"Come on. Come on, we're out here." Shane yelled opening the barn doors

"This is not the way! Please!" Rick begged

Just then the barn door gets pushed open and the walkers start to come out, Andrea and T-Dog move up next to Shane and raise their guns, Shane started shooting then me and Daryl moved up and fired as well then Glenn joined us. Once they were all down I looked at Daryl who nodded then we hear another growl and another one came out, I almost fell down when I saw it.

"Sophia?" I hear Carol cry, "Sophia!" She cried running over but Daryl stopped her as they fell to the ground and I bent down next to her as Daryl held her, "Oh no. Sophia. Sophia. Sophia." I put my hand over my mouth trying to hold back tears as Rick moved forward and lifted his gun then hesitated, after a few more moments he shot her. I couldn't stop them then, the tears fell out of my eyes as I heard Carol cry even harder.

"Don't look, don't look" Daryl tells her as we stood up and I went to comfort her but she moved away from him then ran away from all of us, I continued to cry and feel Daryl pull me to him as I sobbed into his shoulder.

I hear Beth crying as well and I looked up to see her move over to the walkers moving one away bending down to the other, after she rolled it over it growled and tried grabbing her, Rick, Shane and Maggie moved to pull her away as the others grabbed the walker and started hitting it, I moved over and grabbed a scythe swinging it into the walkers head.

* * *

"We've been out. We've been combing these woods looking for her and she was in there all along? You knew." Shane says to Hershel as we all follow them to the house

"Leave us alone." Maggie tells him

"Hey, Shane, just stop, man." Glenn adds and Rick tries to pull Shane back

"Get your hands off me. You knew and you kept it from us."

"I didn't know." Hershel tells him

"That's bullshit. I think y'all knew."

"We didn't know!" Maggie says

"Why was she there?!"

"Otis put those people in the barn. Maybe he found her and put her in there before he was killed." Hershel defended

"You expect me to believe that? Do I look like an idiot?"

"Shane, hey hey hey." Rick says holding Shane back

"I don't care what you believe!" Hershel tells Shane

"Everybody just calm down." Rick interjects

"Get him off my land!"

"Please." Rick begged

"No. Let me tell you something." Shane says to Hershel going over to him but Maggie pushed him back and slapped him, Glenn and I moved forward and I stood in front of Maggie in case Shane tried something and Glenn moved Shane back

"Hey. Don't touch him! Haven't you done enough?" Maggie asked him

"I mean it... Off my land." Hershel adds and the walk into the house then Glenn and I followed

* * *

"I have to ask you... Did you know she was in the barn?" Glenn asked Maggie and she turned to look at him then moved around the couch and sat on the arm, "You know, maybe in some weird way this is for the best. At least we know and now we can move on." He adds

"Move on?" She asked him

"Yeah, it's just like...it meant so much to everyone...finding her, you know? And then..."

"So now you'll just move on?" She asked him again and I put my hand on her shoulder

"If we can. I mean, we've lost others. This is...this is Sophia. The whole group...this one was different."

"So what happens now?" She asked

"We bury her...With your stepmom and your stepbrother." He tells her

"And then?"

He walked over and I stepped aside as he kissed her head, "I don't know."

"Maggie.." I said and she looked at me as I grabbed her hand, "How are you doing?" I asked and she gave me a sad smile, I pulled her into a hug and looked at Glenn, "I'm so sorry" I tell her rubbing her back

* * *

"They're ready." I tell Carol and Daryl walking into the RV

"Come on." Daryl says to her

"Why?"

"'Cause that's your little girl." Daryl tells her

"That's not my little girl. That's some other thing. My Sophia was alone in the woods. All this time I thought... She didn't cry herself to sleep. She didn't go hungry. She didn't try to find her way back. Sophia died a long time ago." Carol says and I stepped out of the RV and walked away but stopped and started to cry again but I feel a hand on my shoulder, I see Daryl standing there and I wiped away my tears

"Come on" He tells me wrapping his arm around my shoulder and we walked over to the graves. After Hershel does the service everyone started to walk away after a moment of silence.

"I need a minute" I tell Daryl not taking my eyes off Sophia's

"Alright, I'll get to movin' our stuff" He says and walked away, I sat down on the ground and just continued to look at it. A little girl, a girl I knew since day 1, laying here in the ground, it wasn't right, not for her not for Carol. I would give anything to trade places with her so that Carol could have her baby girl back, anything. I didn't know how long I was out there until Maggie walked over putting her hand on my shoulder, I looked up at her through the tears as she helped me stand and she hugged me.

"I'm sorry Sam" She reassured me and I just looked off into space

* * *

I was walking up to the house when I saw Lori walking out with a map, "Where are you going?"

"We need Hershel, Beth isn't doing good she needs him."

"So you're going by yourself?" I asked her

"I asked Daryl but he wouldn't do it." She tells me and I sighed

"Well I ain't letting you go alone, come on" I tell her going to the passenger seat

"Is Daryl gonna be ok with this?"

"I'm a big girl Lori, I can take care of myself" I point out and we both get in and drive away

I sat in the passenger seat looking out the window when Lori broke the silence, "So how are you um...holding up?" She asked me and I looked at her confused, "After the baby"

"Oh um...I'm getting better, some days are better then others but I just need to focus on everything else and remember that Jim wouldn't want me to drag myself down." I tell her and she grabbed my hand

"I'm so sorry that happened to you."

"Thank you" I said and she grabbed the map and started to look at it as I looked back out the window when I turned my head seeing a walker in the road, "Lori look out!" I yelled and she hit the brakes, the walker smashed into the windshield and Lori lost control of the car, I grabbed the handle by the window as it crashed and rolled over knocking me out.


	6. Chapter 6

**Surviving the Dead: The Beginning**

I woke up slowly and saw that I was hanging on my side due to the car being on it's side, I looked around and saw Lori out cold next to me, I reached up and grabbed my seat belt trying to think of how I was gonna get out of this without landing on her. Suddenly I hear something hit the window and I see a walker banging on the glass of the windshield.

"Lori, Lori come on wake up" I urged her still holding onto my seat belt then I hear her scream, "Lori hold on stay calm," I tell her and she looked at me, "Just hold on." I pulled with all my strength and lifted my foot up screaming in pain as I put it out the window then pulled again lifting my other foot to the window. I reached down and grabbed my knife out of it's sheath, grabbed the outside of the car getting a good grip then cut my seat belt. I almost fell through but held onto the car and lifted myself out feeling something pop as I did so then I carefully got off the side, grabbed the walker and killed it, "Are you ok?" I asked her

"I-I don't know"

"Okay hold on" I tell her and wiggled my knife into a small gap on the windshield, "Cover your eyes" I instructed and as soon as she did I pulled as hard as I could and the windshield popped out, I reached in and cut her seat belt as well, "Here give me your hand, go slow" I say and she slowly crawls out with my help, "It's ok I got ya" I finally get her standing.

"Now what?" She asked me and I sighed

"I don't know"

* * *

 **Daryl POV...**

I sat at mine and Sammie's camp stoking the fire lost in thought when Carol walked over, "We can't find Lori and the others aren't back yet either."

"Yeah. That dumb bitch must've gone off looking for 'em." I tell her her

"What?"

"Yeah, she asked me to go. I told her I was done being an errand boy." I point out

"And you didn't say anything?" She asked me but I stayed quiet, "Don't do this. Please. I've already lost my girl."

"That wasn't my problem neither."

"We can't find Sam either" She mentioned and I dropped the stick and looked at her

"She's not in the house with you guys?"

"No, we haven't seen her since this afternoon" She says and I grabbed my crossbow

"Damn it"

* * *

 **Samantha POV...**

"How's your shoulder?" Lori asked me as we walked down the road

"Dislocated, but I'll live"

"Sam I'm sorry, if I-" She started to say but got cut off when we hear a car pull up behind us

"You two all right?" Shane asked getting out of the car

"I'm fine." Lori tells him

"You're not fine. I saw the wreck. Let me look at you. Oh." He says looking her over then shined his light up looking in her eye, "What happened?"

"Looked down at the map and hit a Walker."

"Next time stay put, you won't need a map. Come on, I gotta get you both back." He tells us

"No, we gotta find Rick." She says to him

"He's back. They're all back. They're all safe and sound."

"Really?" I asked him, thank goodness because my shoulder was killing me

"Yeah."

"Oh thank God." Lori said in relief and we got into the car

* * *

When we get to the house I see everyone walk over to us as I slowly get out, "Oh my God, are you all right? What happened?" Andrea asked us walking up to Lori who was holding a cloth to her head

"I was in an accident. I'm fine, I'm fine."

"She was attacked." Shane points out trying to get her to the house

"Sam?" Maggie asked me

"Dislocated my shoulder"

"I really am. Where's Rick?" She asked and they all looked at each other then us

"They're not back? Where are they?" I asked

"Look, I had to get you back here." Shane started to say

"You asshole." Lori tells him

"Lori."

"He's my husband." She adds

"Lori, I will go after him. I will find him. Hey! Now look, first things first... I gotta... I gotta look after you. I gotta make sure the baby's all right, okay?" He says and we all look at her in shock

"You're having a baby? Why didn't you tell me?" Carl asked from behind the other and Lori just stood there looking at him speechless

"Come on. Let's make sure you're both all right." Dale tells us and I started to follow the into the house

"Sammie!" I hear Daryl yell as he ran over to me, "What the hell were you thinking? Huh? You could have been-"

"Daryl stop I'm fine" I tell him and he looked at my shoulder, "Okay aside from a dislocated shoulder I'm fine"

"The hell were you thinking?"

"I didn't want Lori going out alone, so I went with" I point out and he hugged me, "Ow" I grunted and he pulled away

"Come on, let's take care of that shoulder" Patricia says to me and I follow her into the house.

After they set my shoulder with Daryl's help I walked into the room Maggie was in with Beth, "How's she doing?"

"Same as before, how are you?"

"Shoulder hurts like a mother but I'll be okay, luckily there was a sling here that I have to unfortunately wear for a couple days according to Patricia." I mention and she gave me a small smile, "It'll be ok Maggie, Hershel will be back soon."

"Thanks Sam"

* * *

The next day I walked over to Daryl as they load up Shane's car to go get Rick and them, "Be careful" I tell him and he gave a small smile

"Always am"

"Coming from the guy who got an arrow stuck in his side after falling down a ridge" I said and he glared at me, "To soon?" I asked with a smile and he lightly shoved my good shoulder

"Shut up"

"Guys" Andrea says walking over and we see the red truck pull down the driveway and up to the house, Rick and them get out and Carl runs over to him.

"Patricia, prepare the shed for surgery." Hershel tells her as he walked into the house

"Are you hurt?" Lori asked Rick

"No, but what happened to you?"

"Sam and I were in a car accident." She informed him

"Accident? How?"

"I went looking for you, Sam joined." She pointed out

"Snuck out on her own. Brought her back."

"Are you crazy? You could've..." Rick started to say but T-Dog cut him off

"Who the hell is that?"

I look over to where he was pointing and I see a kid passed out in the back seat

"That's Randall." Glenn answered

* * *

"We couldn't just leave him behind. He would've bled out, if he lived that long." Rick informed us

"It's gotten bad in town." Glenn adds

"What do we do with him?" I asked as Hershel walked in

"I repaired his calf muscle as best I can, but he'll probably have nerve damage. Won't be on his feet for at least a week."

"When he is, we give him a canteen, take him out to the main road, send him on his way." Rick tells us

"Isn't that the same as leaving him for the walkers?" Andrea asked him

"He'll have a fighting chance."

"Just gonna let him go? He knows where we are." Shane says to Rick and Daryl walked in standing next to me

"He was blindfolded the whole way here. He's not a threat."

"Not a threat. How many of them were there? You killed three of their men, you took one of them hostage, but they just ain't gonna come looking for him?" Shane points out

"They left him for dead. No one is looking."

"We should still post a guard." T-Dog brought up

"He's out cold right now, will be for hours." Hershel says

"You know what? I'm gonna go get him some flowers and candy. Look at this, folks... We back in fantasy land." Shane said bitterly walking away

"You know, we haven't even dealt with what you did at my barn yet. Let me make this perfectly clear, once and for all... This is my farm. Now I wanted you gone. Rick talked me out of it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So do us both a favor... Keep your mouth shut." Hershel told Shane who eventually walked out the door

"Look we're not gonna do anything about it today, let's just cool off" Rick says to Hershel and I see Andrea walk out then everyone else gets up and does the same, Carol walked over to Daryl who walked out the door, I looked at her and put my hand on her shoulder then followed him.

* * *

"Rick say anything to you about Glenn when they got back from town?" Maggie asked Lori as we stand in the kitchen the next day preparing food

"Just that it had gotten pretty bad."

"He's not the same. Says he froze. Blames me. Says I got inside his head." Maggie tells us

"He came back-that's what matters. Men have to do certain things-You know that- And they're either gonna blame the little woman as the reason they do 'em or the reason they don't. I'll tell you something- what happens out there happens out there. And we-we're just trying to keep it together till they get back."

"Things were good. Maybe I-" Maggie started to say but I cut her off as Lori munched on a slice of cucumber

"Glenn's a big boy. He makes his own choices, and then you-do you have anything to apologize for?" I asked her and she shook her head, "Tell him to man up and pull himself together. Just don't say "man up." It never goes well." I point out and the 3 of us chuckle

"Let me just get this to Beth."

"You go on- I got it." Lori tells her grabbing the tray and walked away

"Was Daryl made at you?" Maggie asked me

"Furious, says that I need to stay put and be safe, but funny thing is, is he knows that I won't do it but yet he keeps trying."

"I never asked you this but...the reason I thought Daryl was the..dad, was because you two don't look alike, I mean now I see similarities but..." She started to say

"Daryl's my half brother, same with Merle, our dad he um...was fooling around with some waitress when Daryl was younger and Merle was in juvie, around the time their mom died. The waitress got pregnant with me, had me, then dropped her off with my dad and took off.

"I'm sorry I didn't..."

"It's ok, not many people know except Merle's friends because to him and our dad I'm a bastard, but Daryl never thought of me that way, he practically raised me when our dad would be passed out drunk or gone and Merle was being...well Merle. That's why me and Daryl are so close, he's always been there for me no matter what. I love Merle yes don't get me wrong but that asshole never gave a shit when it came to me." I tell her and she had a look of regret on her face, probably from asking but I didn't mind

"Did you ever um...see your mom again, the waitress?"

"Once, she showed up at our house when I was 16 trying to apologize, I pretty much told her to fuck off and she left. I know it was horrible for me to do but...I don't know, she didn't want me, granted neither did my dad but a mother is not suppose to abandon her child, neither is the father." I said and she held my hand

"For what it's worth, as long as you have Daryl that's all that matters"

"Thank you Maggie."

* * *

Me, Andrea and Lori stood in the kitchen listening to Maggie and Beth argue, "Where's Hershel?" I asked Lori

"Maggie doesn't want him to find out yet. It's a family affair. We'll let them work it out."

"That's working it out?" Andrea asked

"When Beth stops fighting, that's when it's time to worry."

"This could've been handled better." Andrea says and I look at her

"How so?" Lori asked her

"You shouldn't have taken the knife away."

"Excuse me?" Lori asked

"You were wrong, like Dale taking my gun. That wasn't your decision. She has to choose to live on her own. She has to find her own reasons."

"Want me to tie a noose for her?" Lori asked putting stuff away in the fridge

"If she's serious, she'll figure out a way."

"Doesn't mean we can't stop her or let her know that we care." I tell Andrea

"That has nothing to do with it, Sam. She only has so many choices in front of her, and she believes the best one is suicide."

"That's not an option." Lori says

"Of course it is. She doesn't need to be yelled at or treated like a child."

"She needs a loaded gun, right? You'll understand if we don't send you in there." I point out to Andrea

"You came through it, so did I"

"And became such a productive member of the group." Lori mentioned

"Let Maggie handle this her way." I add

"I contribute. I help keep this place safe." Andrea argued ignoring me

"The men can handle this on their own. They don't need your help." I tell her

"I'm sorry. What would you have me do?"

"Oh, there's plenty of work to go around." Lori says

"Are you serious? Everything falls apart, you're in my face over skipping laundry?"

"Puts a burden on the rest of us, on me, Lori and Carol, and Patricia and Maggie. Cooking, cleaning and caring for Beth. And you- you don't care about anyone but yourself- You sit up on that RV, working on your tan with a shotgun in your lap." I bring up and she looked at me

"No, I am on watch against walkers. That is what matters, not fresh mint leaves in the lemonade."

"Like you were when you shot my brother?" I asked her and she stayed silent, "And we are providing stability. We are trying to create a life worth living." I added

"Are you kidding me?"

"Look, Sam and I went after Rick. She took down a walker and helped me out injuring herself in the process." Lori tells her

"After crashing Maggie's car. Ever apologize for that?" Andrea asked her as they talk over each other

"Crashing her- You're insane." Lori says to her

"No, you are. And you're the one that's self-centered, the way you take it all for granted."

"My husband is out there for the hundredth time. My son was shot. Don't you dare tell me I take this for granted." Lori defended

"You don't get it, do you? Your husband came back from the dead, your son too. And now you've got a baby on the way. The rest of us have piled up our losses- Me, Carol, Beth even you Sam, but you just keep on keeping on."

"We have all suffered, you lost Amy yes and I'm sorry about that, I lost Jim and our unborn child, I have a brother out there who god knows if he is even alive or dead! I tried to kill myself, was it selfish? Maybe, but do you know who pulled me out of that tub? Maggie. We all take care of each other." I tell her

"Playing house, Lori acting like the queen bee, laying down rules for everybody but herself. You know what? Go ahead. Go in there and tell that little girl that everything's gonna be okay, just like it is for you. She'll get a husband, a son, baby, boyfriend." Andrea says spitting out that last part and I glared at her, "She just has to look on the bright side." She adds and walked out

"She is so lucky I don't have my punching arm available" I point out and Lori gave me a small smile

"I'm sorry we brought up that stuff Sam"

"Don't be, I'm...I'm getting better talking about it." I said and she put her hand on my good arm and walked away

* * *

"Beth? Beth?" Me and Lori hear from outside the room and we walk in

"Maggie?" I asked her

"She's in there. I heard glass."

"Beth, you all right?" Lori asked as we move to the door

"Don't do this, Beth. Don't do this. Open up, please." Maggie begged trying to open the door, "God, I left her with Andrea." Maggie pointed out and I sighed moving away and took of my sling

"Where's a key?" Lori asked her

"I don't know. Beth honey, please open the door. I'm not mad. I'm not mad, Beth."

"Maggie, Lori step back" I tell them and they looked at me confused but Lori pulled Maggie away, I braced myself then lifted my foot and kicked the door open, luckily it didn't bust off the hinges otherwise Hershel would be pissed.

Beth turned and faced us holding her wrist as she cried, "I'm sorry"

Maggie moved over to her and pulled her into a hug, "It's okay, it's okay" She cried as well walking Beth out of the bathroom

* * *

Maggie, Lori and I walked out of the house to see Andrea running up, "Where were you?" Maggie asked her

"I just heard, is she alright?"

"She would be if you had stayed with her. Where were you?" I asked as well moving next to Maggie

"How bad is she?"

"It wasn't deep." Lori tells her

"She wants to live. She made her decision."

"She tried to kill herself." Maggie points out

"No, she didn't."

"My father is stitching her wrist right now." Maggie defended

"She'll live."

"Stay away from her. From both of us. Don't you dare step foot inside this house again." Maggie warned Andrea stopping her from going in the house

"I'm not gonna say she was right, but Beth has made her choice. She wants to live and now she knows it... And sometimes you have to cross the line, I should know" I tell Maggie who put her hand on my arm and walked back inside.


	7. Chapter 7

**Surviving the Dead: The Beginning**

"So, what you gonna do?" Lori asked Rick as we stand around our camp discussing Randall, "We'd all feel better if we knew the plan."

"Is there a plan?" Andrea asked

"We gonna keep him here?" Glenn asked as well

"We'll know soon enough." Rick says and indicated to Daryl walking over to us

"Boy there's got a gang, 30 men. They have heavy artillery and they ain't looking to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead. And our women, they're gonna- They're gonna wish they were." Daryl says and looked at me

"What did you do?" I asked him looking at his knuckled

"Had a little chat." He answered and I pointed to a chair telling him to sit, Carol brought me over a wet rag and the first aid kit then I started to clean his knuckles

"No one goes near this guy." Rick tells us

"Rick, what are you gonna do?" Lori asked him

"We have no choice. He's a threat. We have to eliminate the threat."

"You're just gonna kill him?" Dale asked him

"It's settled. I'll do it today."

Rick walked away and Daryl jerked his hand when I put the rag to it, "Quit being a wimp" I tell him and he scoffed, " I don't like you doing this Daryl"

"Ain't no different then when I beat up that punk who was trying to hurt you."

"These are both very different situations, you beat that kid up for getting fresh with me, you're beating him up for information. I just...I don't like seeing that side of you" I tell him and finished up his hands.

"I know, I'm sorry"

* * *

"The whole point of us coming up here is to get away from you people." Daryl says and I see Dale walking over as me and him get ready to go hunt

"Gonna take more than that."

"Carol send you?" Daryl asked him

"Carol's not the only one that's concerned about you, your new role in the group."

"Oh, man, I don't need my head shrunk. This group's broken. Me and Sammie are better off fending for ourselves." Daryl tells him

"You act like you don't care."

"Yeah, it's 'cause I don't." Daryl says

"So live or die, you don't care what happens to Randall?" Dale asked him

"Nope."

"Then why not stand with me, try to save the kid's life, if it really doesn't matter one way or the other?" Dale pleaded

"Didn't peg you for a desperate son of a bitch."

"Your opinion makes a difference." Dale tells him

"Man, ain't nobody looking at me for nothing."

"Carol is, Sam is, and I am. Right now. And you obviously- You have Rick's ear." Dale points out and I look at him

"Rick just looks to Shane. Let him."

"You cared about what happened to Sofia. Cared what it meant to the group. Torturing people? That isn't you. You're a decent man. So is Rick. Shane- He's different." Dale said and I stood up

"Why's that? 'Cause he killed Otis?" I asked Dale

"He tell you that?"

"He told some story- How Otis covered him, saved his ass. He showed up with the dead guy's gun. Rick ain't stupid. If he didn't figure that out, it's 'cause he didn't want to." I say to him and walked over to Daryl

"It's like I said- Group's broken." Daryl adds and we walk away

* * *

"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn asked breaking the silence between all of us as we gathered in the house

"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea asked

"How about majority rules?" Lori asks

"Well, let's- let's just see where everybody stands, then we can talk through the options." Rick tells us

"Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward." Shane points out

"Killing him, right? I mean, why even bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing." Dale mentions

"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know." Rick tells him

"Well, I can tell you it's a small group- Maybe just me and Glenn."

There was a pause and I saw Glenn look up at Dale, "Look, I- I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this-"

"They've got you scared." Dale cuts him off

"He's not one of us. And we've- we've lost too many people already." Glenn adds

"How about you? Do you agree with this?" Dale asked Maggie

"Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?" She asked Rick

"Just another mouth to feed." Daryl points out

"It may be a lean winter." Hershel added

"We could ration better." I brought up

"Well, he could be an asset. Give him a chance to prove himself." Dale interjects

"Put him to work?" Glenn suggested

"We're not letting him walk around." Rick tells him

"We could put an escort on him." Maggie says

"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane asked

"I will." Dale tells him

"I don't think any of us should be walking around with this guy." Rick tells him

"He's right. I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up." Lori added

"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labor." Andrea pointed out

"Look, say we let him join us, right? Maybe he's helpful, maybe he's nice. We let our guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his 30 men." Shane pointed out

"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime that he may never even attempt? If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization." Dale argued

"Oh, my God." Shane groaned

"Could you drive him further out? Leave him like you planned?" Hershel asked Rick

"You barely came back this time. There are walkers. You could break down. Y-you could get lost." Lori says out worry

"Or get ambushed." Daryl added

"They're right. We should not put our own people at risk." Glenn mentioned

"If you go through with it, how would you do it? Would he suffer?" Patricia asked Rick

"We could hang him, right? Just snap his neck." Shane points out

"I thought about that. Shooting may be more humane." Rick mentioned

"And what about the body? Do we bury him?" T-Dog asked and Dale spoke up

"Hold on, hold on! You're talking about this like it's already decided."

"You've been talking all day, going around in circles. You just wanna go around in circles again?" Daryl asked him

"This is a young man's life, and it is worth more than a five-minute conversation! Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him? You saved him and now look at us. He's been tortured. He's gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people that we're so afraid of?"

"We all know what needs to be done." Shane says to him

"No, Dale is right. We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsibility-"

"So what's the other solution?" Andrea asked cutting Rick off

"Let Rick finish." Lori tells her

"We haven't come up with a single viable option yet. I wish we could." Andrea said

"So let's work on it!" Dale tells us

"We are." Lori adds

"Stop it. Just stop it. I'm sick of everybody arguing and fighting. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this. Please decide- Either of you, both of you- But leave me out." Carol tells us

"Not speaking out or killing him yourself, there's no difference." Dale tells her

"All right, that's enough. Anybody who wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance." Rick tells us and everyone stayed quiet

"You once said that we don't kill the living." Dale says to Rick

"Well, that was before the living tried to kill us."

"But don't you see? If we do this, the people that we were- The world that we knew is dead. And this new world is ugly. It's... Harsh. It's- it's survival of the fittest. And that's a world I don't wanna live in, and I don't- And I don't believe that any of you do. I can't. Please. Let's just do what's right. Isn't there anybody else who's gonna stand with me?" Dale asked all of us

"He's right." I said and everyone looked at me, "We should try to find another way."

"Anybody else?" Rick asked but nobody spoke up

"Are y'all gonna watch, too?" Dale asked sarcastically, "No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being. Whoa... I won't be a party to it." He adds and walked away before stopping at Daryl, "This group is broken." He tells him and walked out

* * *

Later that night we were sitting by the fire at our camp when Rick and Carl walked over, "We're keeping him in custody, for now." Rick tells us and Andrea stands up

"I'm gonna find Dale."

I sighed and looked at her, "I'll come with you" I tell her and she gave a small nod and we walked away from the group

"Look Sam..."

"Just be quiet, I don't want to hear it" I tell her and we continue walking, after a few minutes we hear screaming coming from the field, "Dale!" I yelled and we both started running

"Help! Over here!" I hear Daryl yell

"Daryl!" I yelled running even faster and we get over to him, Dale is on the ground and his stomach is ripped open, I stop and put my hand over my mouth

"All right, just listen to my voice. Listen to me, all right? Just listen to me. Okay, hold on now." Rick comforted Dale, me and Andrea knelt down on both sides of him, "Get Hershel! He needs blood. We gotta operate now."

"Hang on, Dale. Hang on." Andrea cried and he looked at her

"Listen to me. Come on- Okay, just listen to my voice. All right, please. Hershel! We need Hershel!" Rick yells and the others come over, I feel Daryl put his hand on my shoulder as I cried holding Dale's hand

"Look at me." Andrea tells him

"Dale, we're gonna help. We're here. Just hold on" I reassured him

"What happened?" Hershel asked coming over

"What can we do? Can we move him?" Rick asked Hershel

"He won't make the trip."

"You have to do the operation here. Glenn, get back to the house." Rick says but Hershel stopped him

"Rick."

"No!" Rick yelled and I looked at him

"Oh, God." I cried putting my head down while Daryl keeps his hand on my shoulder

"He's suffering. Do something!" Andrea yelled and Daryl pulls me up and I see through my tears Rick point his gun at Dale but hesitated, Daryl walked away from me over to Rick and moved his hand down then pointed his gun at Dale and looked at me briefly then back at Dale.

"I'm sorry, brother." He says and shoots the gun, killing another member of our family


	8. Chapter 8

**Surviving the Dead: The Beginning**

"Dale could- could get under your skin. He sure got under mine, because he wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare and brave. Whenever I'd make a decision, I'd look at Dale. He'd be looking back at me with that look he had. We've all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us. He saw people for who they were. He knew things about us- The truth... Who we really are. In the end, he was talking about losing our humanity. He said this group was broken. The best way to honor him is to unbreak it. Set aside our differences and pull together, st feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives...Our safety...our future. We're not broken. We're gonna prove him wrong. From now on...We're gonna do it his way. That is how we honor Dale."

* * *

"It'll be tight, 14 people in one house." Rick tells Hershel as we get everyones stuff moved into the house

"Don't worry about that. With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up..."

"With 50 head of cattle on the property, we might as well be ringing a damn dinner bell." Maggie adds

"She's right. We should've moved you in a while ago."

"All right, let's move the vehicles near each of the doors facing out toward the road. Just leave it there. We'll build a lookout in the windmill, another in the barn loft. That should give us sight lines both sides of the property. T-Dog, you take the perimeter around the house. Keep track of everyone coming and going." Rick tells him

"What about standing guard?" T-Dog asked him

"I need you and Daryl on double duty."

"I'll stock the basement with food and water, enough that we can all survive there a few days if need be." Hershel informed us

"What about patrols?" Andrea asked Rick

"Let's get this area locked down first. After that, Shane'll assign shifts while me and Daryl take Randall offsite and cut him loose." Rick said and I walk with Daryl over to our bikes getting on mine and we drove them up to the house

* * *

"Sam. Hey, did you try pumping the gas pedal?" Glenn asked me walking over to the RV as I tried starting it to move it

"I think it's been parked too long."

"You gotta tap it three times.." He started to say

"And give her a twist. I know" I sighed

"Let me see." Glenn indicated to the front and I popped it open then grabbed Dale's toold and stepped out, "Uh, Dale told me that in these old vehicles the points get corroded."

"Screwdriver?" I asked

"Flathead." He tells me and I hand one to him, he started fiddling with the points and I looked back at the RV thinking about Dale and the day we met, I always would give him crap about how the world goes to shit and he had an RV, "Could you hand me a file?" Glenn asked me bringing me out of my thoughts and I hand him one, "I let him down." Glenn says stopping what he was doing

"He was proud of you. Maybe not in that moment, but overall." I tell him, "I have my share of regrets, but I think that he knew how much we cared for him."

Glenn started to cry and I put the bag down and walked over to him hugging his back, he wiped his eyes and shut the front, "That might do it." He tells me and put the tools back in the bag walking to the door of the RV

"Glenn." I call to him and tossed him the keys then we both get in, he sat in the drivers seat and I went to the passengers, "I bet it'll work." I tell him and he starts the RV and it worked, I giggled and he smiled then we started to drive, "What's going on with you and Maggie?" I asked him and he looked at me confused, "Why are you giving her the cold shoulder?"

He sighed and looked forward, "I don't know, I cant get close to her if I could lose her at anytime"

"Geez I need to lock you two in a room together to sort this out." I tell him and he chuckled, "Look, don't push her away, now a days you can't spend the time not being close to someone because you're right, we could lose everyone at some point, I could lose Daryl, you could lose Maggie, Rick, Lori, Carol, anyone. Life is to short to waste it on being afraid to love someone, I should know" I said and he grabbed my hand as we drove to the house in silence.

* * *

"What's wrong?" Maggie asked as we walked up to the shed

"Randall's missing."

"Missing? How?" I asked

"How long's he been gone?" Hershel asked

"It's hard to say. The cuffs are still hooked. He must' slipped 'em." Rick tells him

"Is that possible?" Carol asked him

"It is if you've got nothing to lose." Andrea answered walking out

"The door was secured from the outside." Hershel says shutting the door then opening it

"Rick! Rick!" We hear Shane yell and he walked over to us

"What happened?" Lori asked him

"He's armed! He's got my gun!"

"Are you okay?" Carl asked and I put my hands on his shoulders

"I'm fine. Little bastard just snuck up on me. He clocked me in the face."

"All right, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house. Glenn, Daryl, come with us." Rick tells them and I looked at Daryl who nodded at me

"T, I'm gonna need that gun." Shane tells him

"Just let him go. That was the plan, wasn't it, to just let him go?" Carol asked

"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here, not on our front step with a gun." Rick tells her

"Don't go out there. Ya'll know what can happen." She begs and I wrap my arm around her shoulder

"Get everybody back in the house. Lock all the doors and stay put!" Rick demanded and I moved her with me as we made our way to the house

* * *

"I'm going after them." I tell everyone standing up, I couldn't take waiting anymore

"Don't, they could be anywhere. And if Randall comes back, we're gonna need you here." Lori tells me and the door opened, I saw Glenn and Daryl walk in and I sighed in relief as Daryl walked over to me

"Rick and Shane ain't back?" Daryl asked

"No." I tell him

"We heard a shot." Glenn pointed out

"Maybe they found Randall." Lori says to him

"We found him."

"Is he back in the shed?" Maggie asked

"He's a walker." Daryl told her

"Did you find the walker that bit him?" Hershel asked

"No, the weird thing is he wasn't bit." Glenn tells us

"His neck was broke." Daryl added

"So he fought back." Patricia pointed out

"The thing is, Shane and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other. And Shane ain't no tracker, so he didn't come up behind him. They were together." Daryl says

"Would you please get back out there, find Rick and Shane and find out what on earth is going on?" Lori asked him

"You got it."

"Thank you." She says and I gave him a small smile and he walked away but I followed

"Daryl.."

"Shh" He says and we walk out the door followed by Andrea and Glenn, we look out into the field and see a big herd of walkers moving towards us

"Oh shit" I whispered and the others came out

"Patricia, kill the lights." Hershel tells her

"I'll get the guns." Andrea said walking into the house as well

"Maybe they're just passing, like the herd on the highway. Should we just go inside?" Glenn asked

"Not unless there's a tunnel downstairs I don't know about. A herd that size would rip the house down." Daryl tells him

"Carl's gone." Lori tells us coming outside

"What?" I asked her

"He... he was upstairs. I can't find him anymore." She said in a panic

"Maybe he's hiding." Glenn tells her

"He's supposed to be upstairs. I'm not leaving without my boy."

"We're not. We're gonna look again. We're gonna find him." Carol reassured her and they run into the house as Andrea comes out with the guns and they pass them out, I grab one from Andrea as Maggie handed one to Glenn

"Maggie."

"You grow up country, you pick up a thing or two." She tells him

"They got the numbers...It's no use." Daryl pointed out

"You can go if you want." Hershel tells us loading his gun

"You gonna take 'em all on?" Daryl asked him

"We have guns. We have cars."

"Kill as many as we can, and we'll use the cars to lead the rest of them off the farm." Andrea points out

"Are you serious?" Daryl asked Hershel

"This is my farm. I'll die here."

"All right. It's as good a night as any. Come on Sammie" Daryl tells me hoping over the railing and I followed

* * *

We all make our way to the vehicles, both me and Daryl drive our bikes down a hill and stop away from the barn that's on fire and we start shooting our guns at the walkers, then we drive away as they get closer and drive up to the RV

"Yo! Must've been Rick or Shane who started that fire. Maybe they're trying to get out back! Why don't you circle around?" Daryl tells Jimmy who's driving it

"Got it!" Jimmy tells him and we drive off

"Sammie get out of here and follow the others!" Daryl yelled at me and I see the blue truck drive away

"No I'm not leaving you!" I tell him shooting another walker

"Damn it Sammie go! Now! I'll be right behind!"

I hesitated and shot another one, "You better be!" I tell him and took off, I didn't know where I was going but my gut told me to head to the traffic snarl so I made my way there.

* * *

I pulled up to the highway and saw the red truck sitting there with Rick and Carl next to it, I pulled up to them and shut my bike off getting up, "Have you seen Daryl?" I asked Rick and he shook his head and I see Hershel walk over.

We hear growling and duck behind the truck, "Okay. Come come come come." Rick says to us as we work our way around when the walker passes

"I don't know how much longer we can stay here." Hershel says to Rick

"I... I'm not leaving without mom." Carl says and I put my hand on his shoulder

"So we're just gonna walk away? Not knowing if my wife, your girls are still out there? How do we live with that?" Rick asked Hershel

"You've only got one concern now... Just one... Keeping him alive. Nature may be throwing us a curve ball, but that law is still true."

Rick hesitated then bent down to look at Carl, "Carl. It's not safe here. I'm sorry. We'll..." He was cut off and I hear a motorcycle and I sigh in relief holding back tears when I see Daryl on the other road, he drove down into the ditch then I see Shane's car and the blue truck follow. Daryl stops the bike and turned it off as Carol got off the back and I ran over to him hugging him

"Oh thank God!" I hear Lori say as she pulled Carl into a hug then Rick knelt down hugging her as well, Maggie and Beth run over to Hershel and I hug Carol

"Where'd you find everyone?" Rick asked Daryl

"Well, those guys' tail lights zigzagging all over the road... figured he had to be Asian, driving like that." Daryl says and I slapped his arm

"Good one." Glenn tells him and I chuckle

"Where's the rest of us?" Daryl asked

"We're the only ones who made it so far." Rick tells him

'Shane?" Lori asked standing up but Rick shook his head

"Andrea?" Glenn asked

"She saved me, then I lost her." Carol replied

"We saw her go down." T-Dog adds

"Patricia?" Hershel asked

"They got her, too. Took her right in front of me. I was... I was holdin' onto her, daddy. She just..." Beth cried, "What about Jimmy? Did you see Jimmy?"

"He was in the RV. It got overrun." Rick told her

"You definitely saw Andrea?" Carol asked

"There were walkers everywhere." Lori says to her

"Did you see her?"

"I'm gonna go back." Daryl tells us getting on his bike

"No." I tell him and he looked at me

"We can't just leave her."

"We don't even know if she's there." I point out

"She isn't there. She isn't. She's somewhere else or she's dead. There's no way to find her." Rick mentioned

"So we're not even gonna look for her?" Glenn asked

"We gotta keep moving. There have been walkers crawling all over here." Rick says

"I say head east." T-Dog brought up

"Stay off the main roads. The bigger the road, the more walkers, mo assholes like this one. I got him." Daryl tells us grabbing his crossbow and shooting the walker we saw just a bit ago. We dumped the blue truck taking the gas out of it then headed back on the other road heading east, the red truck in front, me and Daryl on our bikes in the middle and Shane's car behind us.

* * *

 _ **8 Months later...**_

We moved from place to place for 8 months, the only way we knew how long was because of Lori's pregnancy. While we stopped at one place for the night we brought in stuff we gathered along the way considering we lost most of our stuff back at the farm.

I sat near Daryl as he plucked the feathers out of an owl, I see Carl walk in and sit on the floor with a couple cans, I saw that they were dog food. Rick walked over to him as he opened it grabbing it then walked away throwing it into the fire place. We all sat in silence and i looked over at Carl, I understood why Rick did it, he doesn't want us to resort to eating like animals, but at least Carl was trying.

"Psst" T-Dog says from the window and we gather up or stuff again then walked out the back heading to the cars and our bikes driving off again.

* * *

"We've got no place left to go." T-Dog points out as we stop on the road to look at a map

"When this herd meets up with this one, we'll be cut off, we'll never make it south." Maggie mentioned

"What do you say, it's about 150 head?" Daryl asked Glenn from next to me

"That was last week, could be twice that now."

"This river could have delayed them. If we move fast, we might have a shot to tear right through this." Hershel says

"Yeah, but if this group joins with that one, they could spill out this way." I brought up pointing to the map

"So we're blocked." Maggie added

"Only thing to do is double back at 27th and swing towards Greenville." Rick tells us

"We picked through that already, it's like we spent the winter going in circles." T-Dog told him

"Yeah, I know. I know. At Newnan we'll push west. Haven't been through the area. We can't keep going house to house. We need to find some place to hold up for a few weeks."

"Alright. Is it cool if we get to the creek before we head out? It won't take long. We gotta fill up on water, we can boil it later." I tell him grabbing my crossbow that we managed to find and Daryl taught me how to shoot.

"Knock yourself out"

* * *

We stand next to a fence at the prison Rick and Daryl found while Rick cut a slit in it so we could get through.

"Watch the backside!" Rick tells us as we slowly make our way to the fence and slide through

Glenn and Daryl close the wire up then we start to run, the walkers approach but are stopped by the wire, I run next to Daryl who opens one of the gates and we go in. There is a courtyard filled with walkers, "It's perfect." Rick tells us as we all look at the prison, "If we can shut that gate, prevent more from filling the yard, we can pick off these walkers. We'll take the field by tonight."

"So how do we shut the gate?" Hershel asked

"I'll do it. You guys cover me." Glenn says

"No, it's a suicide run." Maggie tells him

"I'm the fastest."

"No. You, Maggie, Sam and Beth draw as many as you can over there" Rick tells us pointing to another part of the fence, pop them through the fence. Daryl, go back to the other tower. Carol, you've become a pretty good shot, take your time, we don't have a lot of ammo to waste. Hershel, you and Carl, take this tower."

"Alright." Carl tells him and they move to the opposite tower from Daryl and Carol

"I'll run for the gate." Rick says

Glenn, T-Dog, Maggie, me and Beth draw the walkers by screaming, and kill them by stabbing them in the head through the fence. Lori opens the door for Rick. He runs towards the prison, shooting walkers who get in his way.

"Come on! Come on!" I yell to the walkers banging on the fence, at one point I see Carol almost shoot Rick by mistake.

"Sorry!" Carol yelled and Rick continued running, the walkers are drawn to Rick, but he manages to shut the gate. Then, he goes in the tower and closes the door, followed by all the walkers.

"Light it up!" Daryl tells us and we all start to shoot killing the rest of the walkers

"Fantastic!" Carol says as we all meet back up

"Nice shooting." Daryl said to her and she smiled

"Yeah."

"You okay?" I asked Lori moving oer to her

"I haven't felt this good in weeks."

We go in to the courtyard, "Oh! Oh, oh! We haven't had this much space since we left the farm!" Carol yells excitedly and I smile as Daryl put his arm around my shoulder

"Wooooo!" T-Dog cheered and I looked at him with a smile

"Dude" I tell him and he looked at me then out at the woods

"Sorry girl" He says with a smile as we all walk towards the prison

* * *

Later that night everyone except Daryl and Rick are sitting around a fire eating, "Mmmm… Just like mom used to make." Glenn says indicating to his food and I gave him a shove with a smile on my face and Maggie smiles. Lori eats and looks at Rick who's on watch next to the fence.

"Tomorrow, we'll put all the bodies together. We want to keep them away from that water. Now, if we can dig a canal under the fence, we'll uh have plenty of fresh water." T-Dog pointed out

"The soil is good, we could plant some seed, grow some tomatoes, cucumbers, soybeans." Hershel says and looked over at Rick, "That's his third time around. If there was any part of it compromised, he'd have found it by now."

I picked up a bowl from next to me and put some food in it then looked at Carol, "Would you mind bringing this to Daryl? Otherwise he won't eat" I tell her and she smiled at me then nodded her head getting up and walking over

"This will be a good place to have the baby. Safe." Beth tells Lori and I smile at her

 **Daryl POV...**

I see Carol walk over to the over turned car I'm on and I put my crossbow over my shoulder and help her up, she hands me a bowl, "That's not much. But Sam asked me to bring it to you otherwise you won't eat at all." She tells me and I look over at Sammie who's sitting by the fire wrapped up in a blanket

"Guess little Shane over there's got quite the appetite." I said to her and she laughed

"Don't be mean. Rick's gotten us a lot further than I thought he would, I'll give him that. Shane could never have done that." I see Carol stretch her neck as I eat a fruit.

"What's wrong?" I asked her

"It's that rifle, the kickback. I'm just not used to it." She massages her neck, I put my bowl down, lick my fingers and indicate for her to turn and I start to massage her shoulder. She started to laugh and I stopped

"Better get back." I tell her and she faced me

"It's pretty romantic. Want to screw around?" She asked asked me

"Pff…" We laugh and I get in front of her getting ready to jump down, "I'll go down first."

"Even better." She says

"Stop." I tell her and we get down and walk over to the others, I sit down next to Sammie who smiled at me then leaned her head on my shoulder.

"Bethy, sing "Paddy Reilly" for me. I haven't heard that I think, since your mother was alive." Hershel tells her

"Daddy, not that one, please." Maggie tells him

"How about uh… Parting Glass?"

"No one wants to hear." Beth says and we look at her

"Why not?" Sammie asked her

"Okay. 'Of all the money e'er I had I spent it in good company And all the harm e'er I've ever done alas it was to none but me and all I've done for want of wit to memory now I can't recall so fill to me the parting glass good night and joy be with you all'" Maggie joins her in singing and Sammie sat up straight and smiled at me, "'Oh, all the comrades that e'er I had were sorry for my going away and all the sweethearts that e'er I had would wish me one more day to stay But since it falls unto my lot that I should rise and you should not I'll gently rise and I'll softly call good night and joy be with you all good night and joy be with you all'"

"Beautiful." Hershel tells then and Glenn puts his hand on Maggie's leg, smiling.

"Better all turn in. I'll take watch over there, we've got a big day tomorrow." Rick tells us

"What do you mean?" Glenn asked

"Look, I know we're all exhausted. This was a great win. But we gotta push just a little bit more. Most of the walkers are dressed as guards or prisoners, looks like this place fell pretty early. Could mean the supplies may be intact. They have an infirmary, a commissary..."

"An armory?" I asked him

"That would be outside the prison itself, but not too far away. Warden's offices would have info on the location. Weapons, food, medicine, this place could be a gold mine!"

"We're dangerously low on ammo. We'll run out before we make a dent." Hershel points out to him

"That's why we gotta go in there. Hand to hand. After all we've been through, we can handle it, I know it. These assholes don't stand a chance." Rick says and stands up then walked away

"Get some rest" I tell Sammie and she nodded then laid down on her rolled up sleeping bag and drifted off.

* * *

 **Samantha POV...**

Rick opens the door that leads to the courtyard, T-Dog enters and stabs a walker, Daryl, Rick, Maggie, me and Glenn enter as well, we all start stabbing walkers in the head. In the meantime, Hershel, Carl, Carol, Lori and Beth try to draw the walkers to the fence in order to stab them through the wire.

"Almost there." Rick tells us as we walk and see another courtyard filled with walkers, we hide behind a wall. Two walkers come dressed as guards, so they have helmets on, Daryl shoots at one but it bounced off the helmet, Maggie kicks one. We keep trying to kill the guards but it's not easy with their helmets on, I kill a walker as Rick walks towards the courtyard filled with walkers in order to close it. He pushes a guard on the floor,"Daryl!" Daryl helps him kill the walkers on their way, and they manage to close the door of the courtyard.

Maggie kills one of the guards by stabbing him in the neck, Me, Glenn and T-Dog look impressed, "See that?" She asked and another one goes up to Glenn and T-Dog who kill it the same way Maggie did and so does Daryl.

Rick kicks a guard, takes off his helmet, and he takes off his skin as well, and stabs him in the head. Maggie kills another one, the courtyard where we are is now filled with bodies, "Stop." Rick tells Glenn as he started to the gate where the others were and we look around

"Looks secure." Glenn points out

"Not from the looks of that courtyard over there. And that's a civilian." Daryl tells him

"So the interior could be over run by walkers from outside the prison." I said

"Well, if there's walls, then, what are we gonna do? We can't rebuild this whole place." Glenn mentions

"We can't risk a blind spot. We have to push in." Rick tells us and we all walk towards a door leading to the prison. Daryl opens it and we wind up in an empty cell block and start looking out for walkers. Rick goes upstairs, then comes back down with keys and he opens the door leading to all the cells, and we walk in. Maggie and I see a dead prisoner in one of the cells. Daryl goes upstairs, Rick joins him, after it was all clear me, Maggie and GLenn go out to get the others;

"What do you think?" Rick asked us as we walk in

"Home sweet home." Glenn says and I chuckle

"For the time being." Rick adds

"It's secure?" Lori asked him

"This cell block is."

"What about the rest of the prison?" Hershel asked

"In the morning, we'll find the cafeteria, and the infirmary."

"We'll sleep in the cells?" Beth asked

"I found the keys on some guards. Daryl has a set too."

"I ain't sleeping in no cage. I'll take the perch." Daryl tells us from up top and I shake my head smiling then head up the stairs, he takes a matteress from the cell I walked into and brought it out to the perch.

* * *

"Not bad" Daryl says as we stand around a table looking at the weapons we gathered up from the walkers

"Flashbangs, CS Triple-Chasers. Not sure how they'd work on walkers, but we'll take them." Rick says and Daryl picks up a helmet with walker skin in it.

"I ain't wearing this shit." He says and I snorted

T-Dog picks up gloves in the same condition, "We could boil them."

"Ain't enough firewood in a whole forest, no! Besides, we've made it this far without them right?" Daryl asked lightly swinging a riot stick and Carol arrives.

"Hershel?" She asked and nodded her head to follow her

"Everything alright?" Rick asked her

"Yeah, nothing to worry about." She says and Hershel follows Carol into her cell.

* * *

T-Dog, Daryl, Carl, Rick, Hershel, Glenn, me and Maggie are preparing and arming ourselves, Daryl insisted I put on one of the riot vests so instead of arguing I put it on

"You won't need that," I hear Rick say walking over to Carl taking the helmet off him, "I need you to stay put."

"You're kidding!"

"We don't know what's in there. If something goes wrong, you could be the last man standing. I need you to handle things here." Rick convinces him

"Sure."

"Great, let's go." Rick tells us and we leave

We advance very carefully through the corridors where there are dead bodies on the floor. Glenn traces arrows so we can find our way back. Suddenly, we see a lot of walkers as we turn down one and go back running, followed by the walkers, "Go back, go back! Go back, move! This way!" Rick urges us and we start moving

"Where's Glenn and Maggie?" I asked looking back to see they weren't behind me anymore

"We have to go back!" Hershel tells us

"But which way?" Daryl asked and we open a door nearby very carefully and start searching for Glenn and Maggie.

"Maggie? Glenn?" Hershel quietly called and we made our way through the corridors, "Mag? Mag?" I hear him call and turned to see we walked away from us then suddenly I hear him scream, I go back and see a walker biting his leg and I kill it with an arrow as Maggie and Glenn arrive.

"No! No, daddy! No!" Maggie cried, the walkers s tart coming on both sides. Rick and Glenn take Hershel and start running while supporting Hershel.

"Daryl!" Rick yells to him and he shoots an arrow at a walker and we try to move down the way we cam but get cut off

"We're blocked!" I yelled and T-Dog pushes us back

"Get back, get back!"

We see a door, and manage to open it, "Get in, get in!" Daryl tells us pulling me into the room

"Oh, god! Oh god!" Hershel cries as me and Daryl secure the door so the walkers can't open it. Rick and Glenn lie Hershel down on the floor. Rick puts his belt on Hershel's leg to stop the bleeding, T-Dog tries to keep the door closed as I move over to help calm Hershel

"Hold him down! Alright. Only one way to keep him alive!" Rick takes an axe, and starts to cut off Hershel's leg, while Maggie and Glenn hold him down, Hershel passes out from the pain. Rick manages to cut off Hershel's leg, "Oh… He's bleeding out."

"Duck." I hear Daryl tell Rick who gets down and Daryl stands up pointing his crossbow and I stand up doing the same, we see 4 men standing behind a wall with a window, and one of them looked familiar to me

"Holy shit." One of them says

 **A/N: Again, positive and negative feedback are always welcome but more importantly I hope you are enjoying this story and I do want to tell you that I have a Pinterest board set up for this story, name is hilaryh21**


	9. Chapter 9

**Surviving the Dead: The Beginning**

 **A/N: Can you guys see chapter 5? I had issues uploading that one so I wanna make sure.**

"Who the hell are you?" Daryl asked them moving over and I stay where I am still aiming my crossbow

"Who the hell are you?" The one that looked familiar to me asked

"He's bleeding out, we gotta go back!" Rick says to us, "Come around here. Put pressure on the knee! Hard! Hard! Push, push!" He tells Maggie

"Come on out of here. Slow and steady." Daryl tells the prisoners and they come out

"What happened to him?" The one asked

"He got bit." Daryl tells him and the one reached for his gun

"Bit?" he takes his gun and T-Dog threatens him with his gun.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy now. Nobody needs to get hurt." Daryl tells them and the one who grabbed his gun looked at me

"Sam?" He asked and I looked at him confused but Glenn walked by me then them

"You got medical supplies?" He asked them walking into the room they came out of

"Whoa where do you think you're going?" The tall one asked him and the walkers are still trying to come in the room.

"Who the hell are you people anyway?" The one who said my name asked

"Don't look like no rescue team!" the older one asked

"If a rescue team's what you're waiting for, don't!" Rick tells him and Glenn comes out with a table to carry Hershel, "Come on, we gotta go! Now! Come on, I need a hand here!" Glenn and Rick put Hershel on the table, "One, two, three, go!"

"Holy Jesus!" The older prisoner said

"T, the door!" Rick tells him and he moved back to the door

"Are you crazy? Don't open that!"

"We got this." T-Dog tells him and opens the door killing a walker that comes in. The others get out of the room, carrying Hershel on the table.

"Daryl! Sam!" Rick yells at us and the one prisoner is still pointing his gun at us as we back away to the door and walk out.

* * *

"This way!" Rick tells us as we rush back through the corridor but see walkers coming down one, "No, no, no, no, back, back! Daryl!"

Daryl kills a walker then grabbed his arrow, "Come on!"

We continue to walk through and wee the prisoners following us, "Stop, stop!"

"Follow the flashlight, come on let's go!" One of them shouts

"Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" Rick urged and we continue moving, Daryl opens a door and we're almost to our cell block. Maggie is still putting pressure on Hershel's knee.

"He's losing too much blood!"

"Open the door! It's Hershel! Carl, come on!" Rick yells to him and Carl opens the door then they rush in, I stay behind with Daryl and we get our crossbows ready and point it at the door we came from as we hear footsteps approaching and the prisoners walk into the room.

"That's far enough." Daryl warns them and the first one looked at me

"Cell block C. Cell four, that's mine, gringo. Let me in." He tells Daryl

"Today's your lucky day, fellas. You've been pardoned by the state of Georgia, you're free to go."

"What you got going on in there?" He asked us

"Ain't none of your concern." Daryl tells him and the guy pulls his gun out of his pocket.

"Don't be telling me what's my concern."

"Chill, man. Dude's leg is messed up. Besides, we're free now! Why are we still in here?" The tall said to him

"Man's got a point." I mention

"Yeah, and I gotta check on my old lady." another prisoner said

"Group of civilians breaking into a prison you've got no business being in, got me thinking there ain't no place for us to go!" The guy with the gun said

"Why don't you go find out?" I asked him

"Maybe we'll just be going now." the older one says to him

"Hey, we ain't leaving!"

"You ain't coming here either!" T-Dog arrives with his gun aimed at the guy

"Hey, this is my house, my rules, I go where I damn well please! Isn't that right Sam?" He asked me and I looked at him trying to remember who he was when suddenly it hit me

"You've got to be kidding me. Thomas?" I asked and I feel Daryl look at me then back at them

"There ain't nothing for you here, why don't you go back to your own sandbox!" Daryl says to them and Rick came over to us

"Hey, hey, hey! Everyone relax, there's no need for this."

"How many of you in there?" Thomas asked Rick

"Too many for you to handle."

"You guys rob a bank or something? Why don't you take him to a hospital?" Thomas asked

"How long have you been locked in that cafeteria?" Rick asked him

"Going on like ten months."

"A riot broke out. Never seen anything like it." The tall one mentioned

"Attica on speed, man." The older one added

"Ever heard about dudes going cannibal, dying, coming back to life? Crazy." Another one says

"One guard looked out for us, locked us up in the cafeteria, told us to sit tight, threw me this piece, said he'd be right back." Thomas said

"And that was 292 days ago." The tall one points out

"94 according to my…" The older one started to say but Thomas cut him off

"Shut up!"

"We were thinking that the army or the national guard should be showing up any day now." The tall one mentioned

"There is no army." Rick tells them

"What do you mean?" Thomas asked

"There's no government, no hospitals, no police. It's all gone." I replied

"For real?" the older guy asked

"Serious." Rick says

"What about my moms?" The tall one asks

"My kids, my old lady!" The other one says, "Yo, you got a self-phone or something so we can call our families?"

"You don't get it, do you?" Daryl asked them

"No phones, no computers. As far as we can see, at least half the population's been wiped out. Probably more." Rick pointed out

"Ain't no way." Thomas said

"See for yourself." Rick tells him and started to lead them outside when Daryl stopped me

"How do you know him?"

I sighed and looked at him, "Again, remember that summer I left home?" I asked and he nodded, "Let's just say a one night stand turned into...well a lot of nights, then he wouldn't take no for an answer when I tried ending it" I tell him

"Did he..."

I shook my head because I knew where he was going, "No, I stopped him before he could."

"He touches you I'll kill him"

"You would have to get in line" I said with a smile and we followed the others

"Damn, the sun feels good." The one prisoner says as we walk out the door

"Good Lord, they're all dead." The older man pointed out

"Never thought I'd be so happy to see these fences." Thomas says and looked at me but I ignored him and stood by the others

"You never said. How the hell did you get in here in the first place?" One prisoner asked

"Cut a hole in that fence over there by the guard tower." Daryl told him

"That easy, huh?"

"Where there's a will, there's a way." I add

"Easy for you to say." One of them asked and the tall guy pokes one of the bodies with a stick.

"So what is this like a disease?" He asked

"Yeah, but we're all infected." Rick tells them

"What do you mean, infected? Like AIDS or something?" the older one asked

"If I was to kill you, shoot an arrow in your chest, you come back as one of these things. It's gonna happen to all of us."

"Ain't no way this Robin hood cast's responsible for killing all these freaks." Thomas mentioned and I snorted, if he only knew

"Must be fifty bodies out here." the small one said

"Where do you come from?" Thomas asked

"Atlanta." Rick answered

"Where you headed?" Thomas asks him

"For now, nowhere."

"I guess you could take that area down there near the water. Should be comfortable." Thomas told him and I shook my head

"We're using that field for crops."

"We'll help you move your gear out." Thomas tells us ignoring Rick

"That won't be necessary. We took out these walkers, this prison is ours."

"Slow down, cowboy." Thomas tells him

"You snatched the locks off our doors." The small one says to Rick

"We'll give you new locks, if that's how you want it."

"This is our prison. We were here first." Thomas said

"Locked in the broom closet? We took it, set you free, it's ours, we spilled blood." Rick argued

"We're moving back into our cell block. Sam can stay in mine with me." Thomas says looking at me and Daryl moved forward but I held him back

"You'll have to get your own." Rick says to him

"It is mine. I've still got personal artifacts in there, that's about as mine as it gets!" Thomas pulls his gun out, Daryl and I aim our crossbows at him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, maybe let's try to make this work out so everybody wins!" The older man says trying to calm us down

"I don't see that happening." Thomas points out

"Neither do I." Rick adds

"I ain't coming back into that cafeteria for one minute." Thomas tells him

"There are other cell blocks." The older guys mentioned

"You could leave. Try your luck out on the road." I tell them

"If these three pussies can do all this, the least we can do is take out another cell block." Thomas said to the others

"With what?" The tall one asked him

"Atlanta here will spot us some real weapons. Won't you boss?"

"How stocked is that cafeteria? Must have plenty of food, five guys lasting almost a year?" Rick asked

"It sure as hell don't look like anybody's been starving." Daryl adds

"There's only a little left." Thomas tells Rick

"We'll take half. In exchange, we'll help clear out a cell block."

"Didn't you hear him? There's only a little left!" The small one argues

"Bet you've got more food than you've got choices. You pay, we'll play. We'll clear out a block for you, then you keep to it." Rick tells them

"Alright." Thomas says to him

"Well, let's be clear. If we see you out here, anywhere near our people, if I so much as even catch a whiff of your scent, I will kill you."

"Deal." Thomas said

* * *

"Pantry's back here!" Thomas says leading us to the cafeteria to check out how much food is left

"You never tried to break out of here?" T-Dog asked

"We tried to take the doors off. But if you make one peep in here, then those freaks will be lined up outside the door growling, trying to get in. Windows got bars on them that he-man couldn't get through." Oscar answered, we learned their names on our way back down

"Bigger than a 5x8." Axel adds

"You won't find me complaining. Doing fifteen. My left leg can barely fit on one of those bunks." Big Tiny mentioned

"Yeah, they don't call him Big Tiny for nothing." Oscar pointed out

"You're done jerking each other off? I'm getting sick of waiting back here." Thomas tells us and I shook my head as we walked into the pantry and saw a bunch of food

"That's what you call a little bit of food?" Daryl asked Thomas moving over to him shining his light around then moved past him

"Goes fast." Thomas says to him

"Mm-hmm."

"You can have a bag of corn, some tuna fish." Thomas tells Rick and I scoffed a little

"We said half. That's the deal." Rick says and moved over to a cooler door, "What's in there?"

"Don't open that." Big Tiny warned him but Rick opens the door, and the smell in the room is so bad he gags and I follow as the smell reached me

Thomas and his group laugh, "You wanted to know!" Thomas tells him and Rick shut it

"Can't wait for my own pot to piss in." Axel says

* * *

"Food's here!" T-Dog called into the block and Carl comes and opens the door

"What you got?" Carl asked him

"Canned beef, canned corn, canned cans! There's a lot more where this came from!" T-Dog answered and I shook my head smiling as we brought it into one of the cells

"Any change?" Rick asked Lori as we came back out

"Bleeding is under control and no fever, but his breath is labored, his pulse is way down and he hasn't opened his eyes yet."

"Take my cuffs, put them on him. I'm not taking any chances." Rick tells Glenn who reluctantly takes them

* * *

"Why do I need this, when I've got this" Thomas asked showing his gun and I rolled my eyes

"You don't fire guns. Not unless your back's up against the wall. Noise attracts them, really riles them up." Daryl answered from next to me

"We'll go in three by two by two. Daryl will run point with Sam and T, I'll bring up the rear with you," Rick points to Andrew, "Stay tight, hold formation, no matter how close the walkers get. Anyone breaks ranks, we could all go down, anyone runs off, they could get mistaken for a walker, end up with an axe to the head."

"And that's where you aim. These things only go down with a head shot." I tell them

"Ain't gotta tell us how to take out a man." Thomas says with a smirk and I rolled my eyes again as Daryl glared at him

"They ain't men. They're something else." T-Dog points out

"Just remember, go for the brain." Rick tells them and we head out

"That your man or something?" Thomas asked me indicating to Daryl who I see look back coming to move over but I shook my head at him

"Daryl's my brother"

"So then...how about one more..."

"Not on your life" I cut him off and moved up to Daryl

* * *

The prisoners and us are walking slowly through the corridors in order to see if there is any walkers, "Man, it's too damn dark in here!" Big Tiny says

"Gotta hold it up high out in front of you." I tell him indicating his axe, "You're gonna hear 'em before you see 'em."

Just then we hear growling, "It's coming!" Axel yells

"Shhh!" Rick says and we see the walkers shadow on the wall coming towards us and Daryl stops us

Before we can do anything, the prisoners run towards the walkers, screaming, and start to attack them by aiming somewhere else than in the head.

"You wanna taste me?" Axel stabs the walker in its stomach and we look at the prisoners failing to kill the walker.

* * *

"It's gotta be the brain!" Daryl tells them as we walk through the other corridor, "Not the stomach, not the heart, the brain!"

Another walker arrives, "I hear you, the brain." Axel says and Oscar stabs the walker in the head, but more arrive.

"Like that?" He asked Daryl

"Uh-uh."

Axel and Rick kill two walkers, "Stay in tight formation, no more prison riot crap!" Rick tells them and more walkers come, the prisoners start killing them and I shot on that came through the door then we hear screaming and move back round the corner to see that Big Tiny was bitten, Rick killed one of them and Thomas shot the other, I looked between him and Rick.

"I'm telling you! I don't feel anything, it's just a scratch!" Big Tiny tells us as Rick looked at it

"I'm sorry man…"

"I can keep fighting!" Big Tiny defended

"You cut that old guy's leg off to save his life!" Axel says

"Look at where the bite is!" I tell him

"Guys, I'm fine! Just… I'm fine. Look, look at me, I'm not changing into one of those things." Big Tiny pleaded

"Look, man, there's gotta be something we can do, we could just lock him up!" Oscar says

"Quarantine him!" Axel adds

"We gotta do something! Why are you just standing there, we gotta save him!" Andrew yelled at us

"There's nothing we can do." Rick tells him

"You son of a bitch!"

"I'm al…" Big Tiny started to say but Thomas stabs him in the head, and continues stabbing him with a hammer. His face is full of blood as he stands up and looks at all of us and walks away.

"What's he in here for?" Daryl quietly asked me

"Armed robbery and Assault"

"You sure know how to pick 'em" He says and I punched his arm

"Shut up"

* * *

"You see the look on his face?" Daryl asked Rick about Thomas

"He makes one move…"

"Just give me a signal." I tell him and they both look at me and we reach the entrance of the cell block

We arrive in a room which contains a set of two doors leading to the cell block where the prisoners would live. Daryl gives Thomas the keys, "I ain't opening that." Thomas tells him

"Yes, you are. If you want this cell block, you're gonna open that door. Just the one, not both of them. Because we need to control this." Rick tells him and we hear the walkers behind the door.

Thomas picks up the keys, "You bitches ready?" He asked and tries to open the door, but it won't open, "I got this." He opens both doors and walkers come in.

"I said one door!" Rick yells at him

"Shit happens!"

We all start killing the walkers and at one point I look over at Rick who is by Thomas. When stabbing a walker, Thomas almost stabs Rick too, on purpose. He then sends a walker on Rick, who falls on the ground.

"T, mind the gap!" Daryl yells and stabs the walker and saving Rick

After we killed all the walkers I look at Daryl who nods at me and I raise my crossbow behind Thomas

"He was coming at me, bro!" Thomas says to Rick who look at me and I gave him a nod

"Yeah… Yeah, I get it. I get it. Shit happens." Rick tells him and nods his head, I fire a bolt killing Thomas

"No!" Andrew yells and tries to attack me with a baseball bat, but Rick kicks him, and Daryl threatens him with his crossbow.

"Easy now." Daryl warns him and Andrew runs away, Rick follows him, while Daryl, me and T-Dog stay in the room with Axel and Oscar. "Hey, get down on your knees!" Daryl tells Oscar who kneels down

"We don't have no affiliation to what just happened! Tell him, Oscar!" Axel pleads

"Stop talking man."

* * *

"We didn't have nothing to do with that." Oscar tells Rick who's pointing his gun at him

"You didn't know? You knew! Daryl, let's end this now!" Rick points his gun at Axel's face, and Daryl puts his knife on Oscar's neck.

"Sir, please, please listen to me! It was them that was bad! It wasn't us!" Axel begged

"Oh, that's convenient!" Rick says to him

"You saw what he did to Tiny! He was my friend! Please! We ain't like that! I like my pharmaceuticals, but I'm no killer! Oscar here, he's a B and E and he ain't very good at it neither! We ain't the violent kind, they were! Please! Please, I swear to god! I wanna live!"

Rick goes back to Oscar pointing his gun at his head, "What about you?"

"I ain't never pleaded for my life. And I ain't about to start now. So you do what you gotta do."

* * *

We bring the prisoner's to their cell block, Rick and Daryl push Axel and Oscar inside and there are bodies everywhere.

"Oh man! I knew these guys, they were good men." Axel says

"Let's go." Rick tells Daryl as I stand by the door with T-Dog

"So you're just gonna leave us in here? Man, this is sick!" Oscar says to him

"We're locking down the cell block. From now on, this part of the prison is yours. Take it or leave it, that was the deal."

"You think this is sick? You don't wanna know what's outside." Daryl adds

"Consider yourselves the lucky ones." Rick mentioned

"Sorry about your friends man." Daryl says to Axel

"Word of advice : take those bodies outside and burn them." T-Dog tell them and we leave.

* * *

"Hershel stopped breathing, mom saved him." Carl tells Rick as we walk back into our cell block

"Still no fever." Lori adds and I stand next to her

Hershel opens his mouth, Maggie sits next to him and we all look at him as he opens his eyes. "Daddy?" Maggie asked

"Daddy! Daddy!" Beth says going down next to him and she laughs, Rick takes Hershel's cuffs off. Hershel grabs Rick's hand, we all smile and I hug Lori who returned it and she leaves the cell then Rick follows.

I head up to my cell and change my clothes, when I was done there was a knock on the wall, I turned and saw Daryl, "Doin' okay?"

"Yeah" I lied and grabbed my water that I used for washing and grabbed a rag

"Sammie"

I sighed and looked at him, "Do you think Merle is still alive?"

He walked into the cell and set his crossbow down, "I don't know, I hope so. Son o' bitch is to stubborn to die"

"Yeah, part of me hopes so to."

"And the other part?" He asked

I put my stuff down, "The other part hopes that he's dead, and not turned into one of those...things" I said through tears and he pulled me into a hug, "I feel horrible saying that and even though Merle never gave a shit about me I care about him."

"You don't need to feel bad about that, part of me hopes so to," Daryl tells me and I look at him, "If he is alive hopefully we'll find him."

I nod my head then wiped my tears away moving to grab my stuff again, "You should change, you smell like ass" I tell him and he pushed me

"You ain't any better" He walked out and I laughed

"Love you too!" I called after him and started to wash the blood off me.


	10. Chapter 10

**Surviving the Dead: The Beginning**

 **Andrea POV...**

Me, Michonne and the two walkers are walking on a road when I see smoke coming out of the forest after the explosion, I look at Michonne and we head in that direction. When we arrive at the spot I end up coughing because I was still sick from the winter and threw up.

"Don't push yourself. You'd better sit." Michonne tells me and helps me sit down, and she attaches the walkers to a tree. She gives me a gun, "I'll check it out." She says and moves over to teh crash but then comes back shortly after, "Someone's coming!"

"Any survivors?" I asked her

"Two dead, not sure about the other."

The two cars stop next to the helicopter and men come out of the cars, "Fan out." One of them tells the others, "Save those rounds for when you need them."

One of the men shoot an arrow in a walker, I put my hand over my mouth trying to muffle a cough.

"Got a breather! Tim! Help me out here." The guy says and they get the survivor off the helicopter. Michonne sees a walker behind her, she's about to kill it, but it walks right past us, and the men see it

"Over here, Shumpert!" The guy with the bow and arrow shoots the walker in the head as two of the guys carry the body away from the helicopter.

"He's saving them. We should show ourselves." I tell Michonne

"Not yet."

We see the main guy look at a soldier and stab him in the head, I look at Michonne confused, why would he kill an innocent man. Michonne's walkers start to do a lot of noise and the men notice them. Michonne runs to them and cuts their heads off then comes back over and hides with me as the men look in our direction, but don't see us.

"Let's roll out." The main guy says and we sigh in relief as the get into the cars.

Just then we hear a noise behind us and Michonne pulls her katana out.

"Uh-uh-uh! Easy does it, girl. Mine's a whole lot bigger than yours." I hear the person say and I immediately recognize the voice, "Now, put down your weapons. That's it, nice and easy. And let me see your hands." He tells us and we raise our hands, "Now spin around. That's it, nice little twirl around." I turn and come face to face with him, "Oh, holy shit. Blondie! You're looking… good!" He tells me and kills a walker that was coming up behind him with what looked like a fashioned together hand knife and stands up, "Now, how's about a big hug for your old pal Merle?" He asked and I passed out

* * *

"Why are we being held here? We want to leave!" I tell the nurse who is examining me

"You're not well enough! And it's dark. You should stay the night."

"Where are we?" I asked her

"That's not for me to say. He'll talk to you."

"Who?" Michonne asked her and Merle enters the room.

"Go check on your patient, doc." He tell her and she leaves the room, "Bet you was wondering if I was real! Probably hoping I wasn't. Well, here I am. I guess this old world gets a little small towards the end, huh? Ain't so many of us left to share the air right?" He tells us sitting down, "You know, when they found me, I was near bled out, starving, thinking to myself a bullet might make a good last meal. Take myself a nice long nap after, wait for Daryl on the other side, hell even Sam too. You seen my brother? My sister?

I was shocked when he mentioned Sam, from what Daryl told me he never accepted her, "Not for a long time."

"Makes two of us."

"He went back for you, him and Rick. You were already gone." I told him

"Yeah well, not all of me!" He says and shows me his cut off hand, and laughs.

"Oh, god…" I looked away then saw he covered it back up

"Yeah…Rick. He's that prick that cuffed me to the roof top."

"Yeah…he…tried. Daryl saw that." I tell him

"He's always been the sweet one, my baby brother, even to our sister."

"He wanted to keep looking, Sam did too, then things happened, people died. A lot of them. Jim, Dale, Jacqui, Sophia, Sam...lost her baby." I said and he looked at me confused but I think he also looked concerned

"Little sis was pregnant?" He asked me and I nodded, "By who?"

"Jim"

"Jim knocked up my little sister...huh...how did she..." He started to ask and I sensed a little bit of caring in his voice

"Miscarried. We also lost...Amy." I tell him, it still hurts to think about her

"Your sister?" He asked me

"Yes."

"She was a good kid. I'm sorry to hear it." He said with sincerity

"There were more, a lot more. We had to leave Atlanta, we wound up on a farm. Daryl stepped up, became a valued member of the group."

"Now he's dead." He assumed

"I don't know that for sure. We got run off by a herd."

"How long ago?" He asked me

"Seven, eight months." I tell him looking at Michonne, "I was separated from the rest of them, got left behind. I know what it feels like."

Merle chuckled holding up his hand, "I doubt that."

"What do you want from us?" I asked him

"There she sits, four walls around her, roof over her head, medicine in her veins, and she wants to know what I want from her. I plucked you and your mute here out of the dirt, blondie. How 'bout a thank you?" He says

"You had a gun on us!" Michonne finally says

"Oh, she speaks! Well, who ain't had a gun on 'em in the past year, huh? Show hands, y'all! Anybody? Shumpert? Crowley? Y'all had a gun on y'all?" He asked them and they shifted but grinned, "Hell, I think I'd piss my pants if some stranger came walking up with his mits in his pockets. That'd be the son of a bitch you'd really want to be scared of…"

"Thank you." I cut him off and he nods, then the guy we saw in the woods enters and whispered something into Merle's ear.

"Sure thing." Merle tells him

"How you feeling?"

"We want our weapons!" Michonne says to him

"Sure. On your way out of the front gates."

"Show us the way. You've kept us locked up in this room." I mention to him

"You see any bars on the windows? You're being cared for."

"Under guard." I point out indicating to the two standing at the door

"To protect our people, we don't know you."

"We know enough about you to want out of this place. We watched you drive a knife into the skulls of two dead men, what the hell was that all about?" I asked him

"They turned."

"They weren't bitten." Michonne argued

Him and Merle share a look, "It doesn't matter. However we die, we all turn." He tells us and I look at him in shock, "I put them out of their misery. It's not easy news to swallow at first but there it is. Now, you're not prisoners here, you're guests. But if you wanna leave, as I said, you're free to do so. But we don't open the gates past dusk. Draws too much attention." He tells us and looked at me, "And you especially, you need a solid night of sleep. You wouldn't last another day out there in your condition. Have you brought over to my place in the morning, hand over your weapons, extras ammo, food for the road, some meds, keys to a vehicle if you want one. Send you on your way, no hard feelings."

I look at Michonne and we all follow the man who opens the door to the place we were in. There's a city, "Welcome to Woodbury."

* * *

 **Samantha POV...**

"Alright, let's get the other cars in. We'll park 'em in the west entry of the yard." Rick tells us as me and Carol walk over from moving a couple cars

"Good. Our vehicles camped out there look like a giant "vacancy" sign!" Daryl says and I shoved him

"After that, we need to load up these corpses so we can burn them." Rick adds

"It's gonna be a long day…" T-Dog pointed out and I slung my arm around his shoulder

"Oh man up!" I tell him and he poked my side causing me to jerk and I punched him in the arm

"Where's Glenn and Maggie? We could use some help." Carol asked

"Up in the guard tower." Daryl says

"Guard tower? They were just up there last night!" I mention and we look at the top of the guard tower.

"Glenn! Maggie!" Daryl calls and Glenn comes out of the tower, he has no shirt on and is buttoning his pants.

"Hey! What's up guys?"

We all laugh at the sight of Glenn, "You comin'?" Daryl asked and I smacked his arm at the his comment while smiling

"What?" Glenn asked confused and we keep laughing

"You comin'?" Daryl asked again, "Come on, we could use a hand!" he tells Glenn

"Yeah, we'll be right down!"

We walk toward the cars, still laughing and I jump on Daryl trapping his head under my arm, "Why do you got to be immature?" I asked him letting go and he grabbed my head doing the same thing and gave me a nuggy

"Hey Rick!" I hear T-Dog tell him and I followed where he was looking, Rick stops smiling immediately when we see the two prisoners Axel and Oscar out of their cell block, walking towards us

"Come with me." Rick tells us and we walk with him over to them, "That's close enough. We had an agreement."

"Please, mister. We know that, we made a deal. But you gotta understand! We can't live in that place another minute, you follow me? All the bodies, people we knew! Blood, brains everywhere! There's ghosts!" Axel pleaded

"Why don't you move the bodies out?" Daryl asked him

"You should be burning them." T-Dog adds

"We tried! We did!"

"The fence is down on the far side of the prison. Every time we drag a body out, those things just line up. So just dropping a body and just running back inside." Oscar mentioned

"Look! We had nothing to do with Thomas and Andrew, nothing! You trying to prove a point? You proved it, bro! We'll do whatever it takes to be a part of your group, just, please, please, don't make us live in that place!" Axel begs

"Our deal is not negotiable. You either live in your cell block, or you leave." Rick tells them

"I told you this was a waste of time. They ain't no different than the pricks who shot up our boys." Oscar says to Axel and looked at us, "You know how many friends' corpses we had to drag out this week? Just threw 'em out like…Those were good guys! Good guys who had our backs against the really bad dudes in the joint like Thomas and Andrew. Now, we've all made mistakes to get in here, chief, and I'm not gonna pretend to be a saint, but believe me… we paid our due. Enough that we would rather hit that road, than to go back into that shit hole." He defended and Rick looks at Daryl who says no with his head.

Daryl locks them back inside and walked over to us, "Are you serious? You want them living in a cell next to you? They'll just be waiting for a chance to grab our weapons, you want to go back to sleeping with one eye open?" Rick asked me and T-Dog as we tried to change Rick's mind

"I never stopped. Bring them into the fold. If we send them off packing, we might as well execute them ourselves." I tell him

"I don't know, Axel seems a little unstable." Glenn pointed out

"After all we've been through? We fought so hard for all this, what if they decide to take it?" Carol asked

"It's just been us for so long…they're strangers. I don't… it feels weird all of a sudden to have these other people around." Maggie pointed out

"You brought us in." T-Dog tells her

"Yeah, but you turned up with a shot boy in your arms, didn't give us a choice, and I knew Sam."

"They can't even kill walkers!" Glenn says

"They're convicts, bottom line!" Carol adds

"Those two might actually have less blood on their hands than we do." T-Dog pointed out

"I get guys like this. Hell, me and Sam grew up with them. They're degenerates, but they ain't psychos. I could have been with them just as easy as I'm out here with you guys." Daryl mentioned and he brought up a good point

"So you with me?" T-Dog asked him

"Hell no! Let 'em take their chances out on the road, just like we did!"

"What he's saying, Daryl…" I started to say but Rick cut me off

"When I was a rookie, I arrested this kid. Nineteen years old, wanted for stabbing his girlfriend. The kid blubbered like a baby during the interrogation, during the trial, suckered the jury. He was acquitted due to insufficient evidence, and in 2 weeks later shot another girl. We've been through too much. Our deal with them stands."

* * *

"Move the cars to the upper yard. Point them facing out. They'll be out of the way but ready to go if we ever need to bail." Rick tells us and Daryl tossed his keys to Glenn, "We'll give the prisoners a week's worth of supplies for the road." He tells me and T-Dog

"Might not last a week." I point out

"Their choice!"

"Did they really have one?" T-Dog asked him

"Hey! Hey, whose blood would you rather have on your hands? Maggie's, Glenn's, or theirs?"

"Neither." T-Dog replied and the others are moving the cars to another place. Daryl and I walk over to our bikes.

"Twin cylinder, is that a Triumph?" Axel asked him and we looked at him, "Yours a Honda?" He indicated to mine

"Don't even look at 'em." Daryl tells him and we get on our bikes starting them up

"Didn't want it bored out? Sounds like it could use a tune-up, I'm pretty handy with the grind! Heads are leakin'! I know my bikes!" Axel yells at us as we leave

* * *

Carol locked the gate then her, me, Maggie and T-Dog started moving cars while Glenn, Daryl and Rick went out to the field.

I get out of the truck I backed up and see Lori, Beth, Carl and Hershel walking outside and I smile.

"All right Hershel!" I hear Glenn yell from the other side and I looked over at him then Maggie putting my arm around her shoulder as she smiled at her dad

"Walkers! Look out!" Carl yelled and we see a bunch of them going to where they were at, Maggie and I ran to the others.

"Sammie!" I hear Daryl yell as I shoot a walker with my crossbow

"Get out of there! Go!" Rick yelled, me and Maggie made our way over to one of our cell block

"Lori! Here!" Maggie tells her and they both ran over to us and we went in and headed to the cells but got cut off when walkers walked out of it.

"This way!" I tell them standing by Carl while Lori stood by Maggie and we headed to the doors of the corridors and Maggie closed the gate

* * *

We make our way through the corridors as while an alarm keeps going off and I see Lori lean on the wall and grunts, I move over to support her, "Can you keep up?" I asked her

"Something's not right…"

"Are you bit?" Carl asked

"No, no, no, no, no. I think the baby's coming!"

"Oh shit" I said

"Mom?" Carl asked and we hear walkers coming

"No, there's no time!" Maggie tells him as he was about to shoot them and Maggie takes over holding Lori while me and Carl took the front and we try to walk as fast as possible. Walkers arrive on the other side of the corridor.

"In here!" Carl tells us opening a door and we go inside then Lori leans on a wall and grunts in pain, me, Carl and Maggie look at each other with worry

* * *

"What are those alarms?" Lori asked in pain

"Don't worry about that." I tell her

"What if it attracts them?" Carl asked and I put my hand on his shoulder

"Lori, let's lay you down." Maggie says to her

"No, the baby's coming now."

"We have to go back to our cell block to have Hershel help!" Carl brings up

"We can't risk getting caught out there, you're gonna need to give birth to this baby here." Maggie says to Lori

"Great." Lori is panting in pain.

"What is she doing, can't she breathe?" Carl asked

"She's fine." I reassured him

"Come here, let's get your pants off." Maggie tells her and unbuckles Lori's pants and helps her lay down

"You're gonna need to help deliver your baby brother or sister, you up for it?" Maggie asked Carl taking Lori's pants off and he nodded, "Let me do an exam to see if your dilated." Maggie tells her and I move down and support Lori's shoulders

"Do you know how?" Carl asked Maggie

"Dad taught me, but trust me, it's my first time," She says and tries to examine Lori, "I can't tell…"

"I gotta push." Lori tells her and stands up with my help, Maggie supports her as she pushes and I stay down in case the baby comes out, "Somebody!" Lori strained, "I'm okay, I'm okay… I'm okay."

"You're doing great, Lori. Just keep doing it. Your body knows what to do. Let it do all the work." Maggie reassured her, "You're doing great."

"Lori, stop, don't push, something's wrong!" I yell and Lori screamed, I pull my hand away and Maggie looks at the blood that's on it then we look at each other.

* * *

"Mom? Mom, look at me, look at me, keep your eyes open!" Carl tells her as we lay her on the floor

"We have to get you back to Dad." Maggie adds

"I won't make it."

"Lori, with all this blood, I don't even think you're fully dilated yet, no amount of pushing is gonna help." Maggie mentioned

"I know what it means, and I'm not losing my baby. You've gotta cut me open." Lori says and I look at Maggie

"No, I can't."

"You don't have a choice." Lori tells her

"I'll go for help." Carl said

"No!" Lori yells to him

"Look, Carol's the one that practiced that, Dad only taught me the steps Lori, if I…" Maggie started to say

"Please…" Lori begged her

"I have no anesthetic, no equipment…"

"Carl has a knife, Sam knows how to do it." Lori says

"Lori I skin animals and cut them up it's different" I tell her

"You won't survive." Maggie adds

"My baby has to survive… Please…My baby, for all of us… Please, Maggie! Sam! Please." She begs and I try to fight back the tears as Maggie shakes herv head no, "Please…"

* * *

"See my old C-section scar?" Lori asked me when I switched spots with Maggie and looked at Lori's stomach

"I can't." I said crying

"You can. You have to. Carl? Baby, I don't want you to be scared, okay? This is what I want. This is right. Now you-you take care of your daddy for me, all right? And your little brother or sister, you take care…" Lori tells him

"You don't have to do this."

"You're gonna be fine…you are gonna beat this world, I know you will. You are smart, and you are strong, and you are so brave! And I love you." She says and they start crying

"I love you too."

"You gotta do what's right, baby. You promise me, you'll always do what's right. It's so easy to do the wrong thing in this world. So don't… so if it feels wrong, don't do it, all right? If it feels easy don't do it. Don't let the world spoil you. You're so good! You're my sweet boy! The best thing I ever did! I love you! I love you. You're my sweet, sweet boy, I love you." Lori says with her voice breaking and Carl hugs her, "Okay… okay, now. Okay. Maggie, when this is over, you're gonna have to…"

"Shh…"

"No, you have to do it, it can't be Rick." Lori tells her and looked at me, "Alright, alright, it's alright. It's alright…" Carl gives me his knife, "Goodnight, love."

"I'm sorry…" I tell her and cut Lori open following her old scar, Lori starts screaming from the pain.

"You're killing her!" Carl yells at me and Lori's head falls on the ground, and her eyes close, she dies.

"Maggie, give me your hands." I tell her and she trying to calm herself, "Maggie, please. Keep the site clean, okay? I cut too deep, I'm gonna cut the baby." I tell her and she nodded, "Okay…Okay, come on, I see it, I see the ears. I'm gonna pull it out." I said reaching inside trying to feel around, "I can't tell if this is the arm or the leg." I point out and I find the part of the baby I needed to hold, "Okay, I'm gonna pull the baby out." I pull it out but it doesn't move or scream, "Maggie?" I asked her and she reached over trying to tap it to revive the baby and moved it so it was laying face down in my arms and tapped it's back. Finally, it works and the baby starts crying. Carl gives me his vest to put on the baby and I wrap it up, "Can you take the baby Maggie? I can't hold my crossbow at the same time" I tell her and she nodded taking the baby.

"We have to go." Maggie tells us and I look down at Lori

"Well, we can't just leave her here, she'll turn." Carl tells us and Maggie tries to get her gun out while holding the baby, "No..." Carl says and I see his gun

"Carl…" I started to say

"She's my mom." He says and I look at him then Lori, after a moment Maggie and I leave with the baby

Maggie opens the door, and we see walkers in the corridor, so we goes back in. As we make our way back down we hear a gun shot then Carl walks out moving past us, tears run down my face and Maggie put her hand on my shoulder and we followed him

* * *

"Daryl and Glenn, you come with me…" I hear Rick say as we walked out of the entrance, Rick turns around, I open the gate and we enter the courtyard. Me and Maggie are crying unable to say a word, Daryl puts his crossbow down and rushes over to me as I lose it and fall to the ground crying into his shoulder. Rick moves towards us, "Where is… where is she?" He asked and I see him try to go back in the prison, but Maggie stops him.

"No, Rick, don't!"

He starts crying, and looks at Carl, "Oh no…. No! No!" Rick continues to cry and Daryl pulls me him and I cry into his shoulder again.

 **A/N: I'm not crying, you're crying**


	11. Chapter 11

**Surviving the Dead: The Beginning**

"Rick, you with me? Rick?" Daryl asked kneeling down in front of him and Rick just looked out into space

"Let me see the baby." Hershel tells Maggie and she brings him over

"We're gonna feed it. We got anything a baby can eat?" Daryl asked

"The good news is she looks healthy. But she needs formula. And soon, or she won't survive."

"No. No way. Not her. We ain't losing nobody else. I'm going for a run." Daryl says putting his crossbow over his shoulder

"I'll back you up." Maggie tells him

"I'll go too." Glenn adds

"Okay, think where we're going. Beth." Daryl pulls her aside whispering something to her, "You two get the fence, to many pile we got ourselves a problem." He says to Oscar and Axel, "Glenn, Maggie vamanos" He says and Rick grabbed his ax then ran back inside

"Rick!" I yelled after him but he kept going

"Get the gate." Daryl tells me and I followed him, "Come on, we're gonna lose the light." He says to Maggie and Glenn and they followed him

* * *

 **Daryl POV...**

"There." Maggie tells me and I pull over to I'm guessing a daycare and turned my bike off, "Company's close. Stay tight." I tell her and she opened the fence and we make our way to the building, Maggie looks in a window then smashed it with the butt of her gun and climbed in with me following after looking around the room, my eyes go over to a wall filled with paper hand prints and I see one that says Sofie and feel a pain in my heart because it reminded me of Sophia, "What happened? With um..." I started to ask Maggie really not wanting to bring it up

"There was a complication, Lori was...bleeding and Sam...Sam had to cut her open to get the baby out"

 _Oh crap,_ "I'm sorry"

"It's ok" She says and we make our way down the hall and hear a faint rattling, we move over to the kitchen and I open the bottom door while Maggie moved to where the sound was coming from, I raised my crossbow and nod to her then she opened the door revealing a possum that I quickly shot

"Hello, dinner." I said and grabbed it

"I'm not putting that in my bag." Maggie tells me and opens the cupboard

* * *

 **Samantha POV...**

I was sitting next to Carl holding the baby trying to calm her down when Daryl and Maggie walked in, Daryl puts his crossbow down, "How's she doing?" He asked me reaching for her and I put the baby in his arms, "Shh. I'm sorry. Shh..." Beth walked back over and handed him a bottle and he tries to give it to her, "She got a name yet?" Daryl asked Carl

"Not yet. But I was thinking maybe Sofia. Then there's Carol, too. And...Andrea. Amy. Jacqui. Patricia. Or... Lori. I don't know." He says and I put my hands on his shoulder and looked at me big brother as he fed the baby

"You like that? Huh? Little ass-kicker. Right?" He asked looking at us with a smile and I shook my head, "That's a good name, right? Little ass-kicker. You like that, huh? You like that, sweetheart?"

* * *

The next morning I walked out of the prison to look around and I saw Daryl standing at the graves so I made my way down to him, "Hey"

"Hey" He replied and I saw Carol's scarf hanging from her marker

"Is it ever gonna stop? Are we ever going to stop losing people?" I asked and looked over at Lori's grave then I feel Daryl wrapped his arm around my shoulder

"I'm sorry you had to do what you did" He tells me and I look at him

"She wanted it, so the baby could survive," I said with my voice breaking, "I didn't want to I wanted to save her too" I cried and he pulled me into a hug

"I'm sorry Sammie, I'm so sorry"

* * *

We all sat around the next morning eating cold oatmeal, not very good oatmeal but can't be to picky nowadays, I looked over at Carl who was just looking into his bowl, "Hey buddy, you need to eat." I tell him rubbing his back and he picked up his spoon but didn't do anything.

"Everybody okay?" Rick asked walking into the room from the corridors

"Yeah, we are." Maggie tells him and he walks over to us

"What about you?" Hershel asked him

"I cleared out the boiler block."

"How many were there?" I asked

"I don't know. A dozen, two dozen. I have to get back. Just wanted to check on Carl." He says lightly patting Carl on the back

"Rick, we can handle taking out the bodies. You don't have to." Glenn tells him standing up

"No, I do. Everyone have a gun and a knife?" He asked Daryl walking over to him

"Yeah. We're running low on ammo, though."

"Maggie and me were planning on making a run this afternoon. Found a phone book with some places we can hit, look for bullets and formula." Glenn tells him

"We cleared out the generator room. Axel's there trying to fix it in case of emergency. We're gonna sweep the lower levels as well." Daryl adds

"Good, good." He says heading back to the door and shuts it

"Rick" Hershel called after him but nothing

* * *

 **Maggie POV...**

"We just hit the powdered formula jackpot." Glenn says walking out with a few more things

"Oh, thank God." I tell him grabbing some stuff and putting it them in the truck

"I also got beans, batteries, cocktail wieners, many mustards. It's a straight shot back to the prison from here. Probably make it in time for dinner." He tells me and put the other stuff in there as I grabbed the basket with formula

"I like the quiet. Back there, back home, you can always hear them outside the fence no matter where you are."

"And where is it y'all good people are calling home?" We hear someone say behind us and I drop the basket taking out my gun

"Merle?" Glenn asked and I looked at him _Merle? That's Sam and Daryl's older brother?_

"Wow!" He exclaimed putting his gun down and started to come closer to us

"Hey, back the hell up!" I yell at him still holding up my gun

"Okay, okay, honey. Jesus."

"You made it." Glenn mentioned

"Can you tell me, are my brother and sister alive? Huh?" He asked Glenn, I was suprised he cared about Sam

"Yeah." Glenn replied and he smiled and sighed in relief

"Hey, you take me to them and I'll call it even on everything that happened up there in Atlanta. No hard feelings. Huh?" He asked and I glanced at his hand, or well the metal thing that was covering his hand, "You like that? Yeah. Well, I found myself a medical supply warehouse. Fixed it up myself. Well, pretty cool, huh?"

"We'll tell Daryl and Sam you're here and they'll come out to meet you."

"Hold on. Just hold up." He tells us and started to move forward

"Whoa. Whoa."

"Hold up here. Hold up. Hey, the fact that we found each other is a miracle. Come on, now. You can trust me." He begs

"You trust us. You stay here." Glenn tells him and he chuckled then after a pause he reached and grabbed a gun from his pants and shot at the truck, me and Glenn both ducked out of the way but Merle grabbed me bringing me to the ground holding his make shift knife to me and Glenn came around the truck

"No! Hey, hey, hold up, buddy, hold up."

"Let go of her. Let go of her!" Glenn yells at him

"Put that gun in the car. Put it in the car, son." Glenn puts the gun in and raised his hands, "There you go. Now we're gonna go for a little drive."

"We're not going back to our camp." Glenn tells him

"No, we're going somewhere else. Get in the car, Glenn! You're driving! Move!"

"Don't." Glenn pleaded to him while Merle still held the knife to me

"Get up." Merle tells me and I stand, we get in the truck and Glenn started it driving off, not knowing where we were headed.

* * *

 **Samantha POV...**

Rick holding the baby, Carl, Hershel, me, and Beth walked outside the prison after Rick came back to us and I smiled at him, he lost his wife and was losing himself, but he was trying to come back.

"She looks like you," He tells Carl and he chuckled, "I never thanked you Sam" He says to me

"For what?"

"Bringing my daughter into the world, I know it wasn't easy for you and I'm sorry." He said and I put my hand on his shoulder

"It wasn't," I tell him and looked at the baby, "But it was worth it" I said with a smile

"I just..." He started to say but stopped and I followed where he was looking, we see a woman walking up to the fence carrying a basket

"Would you...you got her?" He asked Carl handing him the baby, "Sam" He says and we walked down to the fence, I looked at her then Rick

* * *

Carl comes running down to us and I see the woman groan and put her hand to her leg, just then the walkers that were next to her turned to face her and she backed away pulling a sword from her back and stabbed one then continued to limp away from them, "Should we help her?" Carl asked and Rick and I exchanged a look then move over to the main gate

"Carl!" Rick says and Carl threw him the keys then he unlocked it

"I got you go" I tell him holding my crossbow up and as soon as he opened the gate I shot one followed by him and Carl, Rick went over to the woman while Carl grabbed the basket

"Is she bit?" I asked him

"Gunshot." Rick lifted her up and I grabbed her sword then we head back inside

* * *

"Carl, get a blanket. Beth, water and a towel." Rick tells them as he dragged the woman inside and puts her down by a cage

"Here?" Carl asked him

"She's not coming in the cell blocks." He says laying her down, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Steady now. All right. All right." Beth hands him water and a towel, "Thank you. Shh. It's all right. It's all right." He reassured her pouring the water on her and she jerks away, "Hey, hey, look at me. Look at me. Who are you? Hey, it's all right. Hey. Hey." She goes to reach for her sword but Rick kicked it away, "No. We're not going to hurt you unless you try something stupid first, all right?"

"Rick. Who the hell is this?" Daryl asked coming out of the cell block

"You wanna tell us your name?" Rick asked her but she stayed quiet, "You wanna tell us your name?" He asked again but she just looked at him

"Y'all come on in here." Daryl tells us and Rick stood up

"Everything all right?"

"You're gonna wanna see this." He says

"Go ahead" Rick told us and we walked into the cell block then they followed shortly after. Daryl led us to a cell and I saw Carol sitting on the bed

"Oh, God." She says slowly standing up and hugged Rick

"Thank God. Thank God. Thank God." Rick says hugging her

"How?" I asked as she hugged me as well then Hershel

"Solitary."

"Poor thing fought her way into a cell. Must have passed out. Dehydrated." Daryl told me and Beth walked over with the baby. Carol looked at the baby then Rick, he didn't say anything just gave a small nod and tears form in Carol's eyes and Rick started to cry as well

"I'm sorry. Oh, God." She says and walked over to the baby

* * *

"We can tend to that wound for you, give you a little food and water, and then send you on your way. But you're gonna have to tell us how you found us and why you were carrying formula." Rick tells the woman as me, Him and Daryl walked out of the block over to her

"The supplies were dropped by a young Asian guy with a pretty girl."

"Maggie" I whispered and put my hand on Hershel's shoulder

"What happened? Were they attacked?" Hershel asked her

"They were taken."

"Taken? By who?" I asked

"By the same son of a bitch who shot me."

"Hey, these are our people. You tell us what happened now!" Rick says and pushed on her wound

"Don't you ever touch me again!" She yells standing up and Daryl raised his crossbow

"You'd better start talking. You're gonna have a much bigger problem than a gunshot wound." Daryl Warned her

"Find 'em yourself."

"Hey, shh, shh, shh. Put it down." I told Daryl and he lowered it then I looked at her, "You came here for a reason." I said and she looked at me

"There's a town. Woodbury. About 75 survivors. I think they were taken there."

"A whole town?" Rick asked

"It's run by this guy who calls himself the Governor- pretty boy, charming, Jim Jones type."

"He got muscle?" Daryl asks her

"Paramilitary wannabes. They have armed sentries on every wall."

"You know a way in?" I asked

"The place is secure from walkers, but we could slip our way through."

"How'd you know how to get here?" Rick asked her

"They mentioned a prison, said which direction it was in, that it was a straight shot."

"This is Hershel, the father of the girl who was taken. He'll take care of that." Rick tells her pointing to her wound and we walked away

* * *

"How do you know we can trust her?" Oscar asked

"This is Maggie and Glenn. Why are we even debating?" Beth asked as well

"We ain't. I'll go after them." Daryl says

"I will too" I add

"Well, this place sounds pretty secure. You can't go alone."

"I'll go." Beth says

"Me, too." Axel added

"I'm in." Oscar says as well

* * *

"I got the flash bangs and I got the tear gas. You never know what you're gonna need." Daryl says as me and Oscar load stuff up in the back of a car and we walked back inside to grab more things, "I don't like the idea of you goin" Daryl tells me as we load more stuff

"I know, but after everything Maggie has done for me I just...their family Daryl, we protect our family."

"Don't leave my side okay?" He asked and I lightly pushed him

"You ever gonna stop worrying about me?"

"No" He said and I smiled as we walked over to Carol, "Stay safe" He tells her

"9 lives remember?"

I smile at her and kissed the top of the babies head then put my hand on her arm and we got in the car and left

* * *

"They have patrols. We're better off on foot." Michonne tells us as we get out of the car

"How far? Night's coming." Rick tells her

"It's a mile, maybe two." She says and I grab my crossbow and bag slinging them over my shoulder and we head into the woods, Michonne and Oscar in front, me behind them and Daryl and Rick behind me

"You know, what you did for me, for my baby, while I was...working things out- thank you." I hear Rick say to Daryl as we walk

"It's what we do." He tells him and we hear snarling, "Rick."

"Down." Rick tells us and we crouch down seeing a bunch of walkers come towards us, "Get in formation. No gunfire." Rick says and kills a walker with his machete, I aim my crossbow up and kill another, while I was reloading Daryl shot one, "Oscar." Rick says and Oscar kills one with a hammer

"There's too many of them." Daryl pointed out as we back away

"This way." Rick says and we make our way between a gap into the trees, "Through there. Come on." Rick pointed to a small cabin and we head in, "Get the door." Rick instructed and Michonne shut it, and I swear you could see the smell, "Keep it down. Keep it down."

"The smell, it's loud." Daryl mentioned and I nodded my head as we made our way quietly through the cabin seeing something on the floor

"What the hell is that?" Oscar asked

"It's got to be a fox or what's left of one." Daryl says and we see a dead dog on the ground, "I guess Lassie went home." He says and I tried not to gag when someone sits up in the bed

"Ah! Who the hell are you?"

"We don't mean any harm." Rick tells him

"Get outta my house!"

"Okay, okay, okay. We will, but we can't right now." Rick says to him

"Now!"

"Shut him up." Michonne says as the walkers kept pounding on the door

"Get out right now!"

"There are walkers outside." Rick informed him

"I'll call the cops!"

"I am a cop. Now I need you to lower the gun. Don't do anything rash. Everything's fine. Let's just- let's just take this nice and slow, okay? Look at me. Hey, hey." Rick said trying to calm him down

"Show me your badge." The man says cocking his gun

"All right. It's in my pocket. It's in my pocket. Now, I'm just gonna reach down nice and slow." Rick says and quickly knocked the gun away causing it to go off, Daryl and I ducked as it shot the wall behind us and Rick grabbed the guy

"Let go! Let go of me! I'll kill you, you- let go of me!"

"Shut up! Shut up!" Rick tells him and the guy bit Rick's hand and runs to the door

"Help! They found me! Help me!"

"Don't open that door." Rick says

"Hel-" Michonne stabbed the guy killing him and looked at us

Daryl looked out the door as the walkers continued, "Remember the Alamo?" He asked

"Daryl, help me with the door." Rick tells him and they grabbed a ahold of the body

"You've gotta be kidding." Oscar says

"He's dead. Check the back." Rick told him and he walked to the back door opening it

"It's clear!"

"One, two, three." Rick counted and Michonne opened the door and they shoved the body outside then we made our way out the back

* * *

We arrive outside of the town and take a look at the guards that are station on top of a makeshift wall, just then Michonne moves away from me and hurrys away, "Hey! Hey!" Rick called after her but she kept going, "Damn it" He grumbled and backed over to me, Daryl and Oscar, "All right we need to down size." He tells us and I take off my bag grabbing my hand gun out of it then put my crossbow over my shoulder

"Ain't no way we're gonna check in all them buildings, not with all them guards there." Daryl points out and a twig snapped, we turn around raising our weapons as Michonne indicated for us to follow her

"All right, let's go." Rick says and we followed

* * *

 **Merle POV...**

"The prison's the perfect place to hole up. What once kept prisoners in now keeps biters out. And that's smart." The Governor tells me as we look at a map

"You thinking of taking it over, moving Woodbury there?" I asked him

"People love it here because it feels like what was. Move them to damp cells surrounded by barbed wire? No. We gotta take out the group that's living there. Let the biters move back in. No one'll be the wiser."

"The problem is my brother and sister are with them." I tell him

"Well, you'll talk to them. Make them our inside people. They'll get us in there. We'll wave the white flag like we did with the National Guard."

"Nothing happens to Daryl or Sam." I said to him

"Of course not."

"What about Glenn and the girl?" I asked

"Well, the longer they're here, the more chance Andrea will find out. Take them to the Screamer Pits." He tells me and left, I looked at the map, he better not hurt Daryl or Sam or I swear to god.

* * *

 **Samantha POV...**

"This is where you were held?" Rick asked Michonne as we slipped our way into a building to get behind the walls and into the town

"I was questioned."

"Any idea where else they could be?" I asked her and Daryl moved over to a window

"I thought you said there was a curfew." He says to her

"The street is packed during the day. Those are stragglers."

"If anyone comes in here, we're sitting ducks. We gotta move." Rick pointed out

"They could be in his apartment." She says to us

"Yeah? What if they ain't?" Daryl asked as they walked back over

"Then we'll look somewhere else."

"You said you could help us." Rick tells her

"I'm doing what I can."

"Then where in the hell are they?" I asked getting frustrated

"Hey." Rick says and nods for me, Daryl and Oscar to follow him, "If this goes south, we're cutting her loose."

"You think she's leading us into a trap?" Oscar asked him

"Right now it's the blind leading the blind. Let's split up." Daryl says and we hear knocking on the door

We hide as the door opened, "I know you're in here. I saw you moving from outside. All right, now. You're not supposed to be in here and you know it. Who's in here?" the man asked and Rick popped out from the curtain pinning him to the wall

"Shut up. Get on your knees." He tells the man who complied, "Hands behind your back. Zip tie him." He tells Daryl who does so, "Where are our people?"

"I don't know."

"You are holding some of our people. Where the hell are they?" Rick asked him again

"I don't know."

"Open your mouth." Rick told him then shoved a cloth in it and Daryl knocked him out

* * *

We hear gunfire a short distance away from us and slowly make our way out of the building heading towards it which lead us to a warehouse. We duck down behind a wall hearing muffled talking, "On your feet move!" Someone says I'm assuming to Maggie and Glenn

"Shit" Rick said and both him and Daryl grabbed flash bangs and threw them, we make our way back over, Rick went to Glenn and I went to Maggie taking the cover off her head

"I got you" I tell her then shoots at us as we walked away getting out of the building

* * *

"Inside, quick" Rick tells us and we head into another building and Glenn fell to the floor, Maggie knelt down next to him

"Ain't no way out back here." Daryl pointed out as he looked for an exit and I was knelt down next to Glenn and Maggie

"Rick, how did you find us?" Maggie asked him

"How bad are you hurt?" Rick asked Glenn

"I'll be all right."

"Where's that woman?" Maggie asked

"She was right behind us." Rick answered and looked out a window

"Maybe she was spotted." Oscar mentioned

"Want me to go look for her?" Daryl asked Rick

"No. We gotta get them out of here. She's on her own."

"Daryl, Sam, this was Merle. It was. He did this." Glenn told us and I looked at Daryl then we walked over to him

"You saw him?" I asked him

"Face to face. Threw a walker at me. He was gonna execute us."

"S-So my brother's this governor?" Daryl asked

"No, it's somebody else. Your brother's his lieutenant or something." Maggie replied as Glenn put on a sweatshirt she handed him

"Does he know we're still with you?" Daryl asks

"He does now. Rick, I'm sorry. We told him where the prison was. We couldn't hold out." Glenn told him

"Don't. No need to apologize."

"They're gonna be looking for us." Maggie pointed out

"We have to get back. Can you walk? We got a car a few miles out." He asked Glenn

"I'm good."

"All right." Rick says and helps Glenn stand up

"Hey, if Merle's around, I need to see him." Daryl said to Rick

"Me too" I add

"Not now. We're in hostile territory."

"He's our brother. I ain't-" Daryl started to say but Rick cut him off

"Look at what he did! Look, we gotta- we gotta get out of here now."

"Maybe we can talk to him. Maybe we can work something out." I argued

"No, no, no. You're not thinking straight. Look, no matter what they say, they're hurt. Glenn can barely walk. How are we gonna make it out if we get overrun by walkers and this governor catches up to us? I need both of you." Rick tells me and Daryl, "Are you with me?" He asked, Daryl and I shared a look before Daryl looked at Rick

"Yeah." Daryl replied and I nodded my head

* * *

"On three, stay tight," Rick tells us as Daryl held a flash bang, I stayed by Maggie and Glenn helping to hold him up, "One, two, three" Rick says and opened the door, Daryl threw it out

"Hey over there!" Someone yelled

"Let's go" Rick says and we made our way out the door after it went off

"There they are" A guard on the wall said and Rick shoots at him killing him, Daryl shoots another one and shots go off behind us

"Behind you!" Daryl yelled and we both shot in that direction

"Go! Get cover! In there!" Rick tells us as we make our way over to a building ducking behind the pillars, "How many?" Rick asked Oscar

"I didn't see"

"Don't matter there's gonna be more of them" Daryl pointed out

"We need to move" I add

"Any grenades left?" Rick asked Daryl

"Uh huh"

"Get them ready. We got to gun it to the wall" Rick told us

"You guys go ahead I'm gonna lay down some cover fire" Daryl says and I look at him

"No we gotta stay together" I tell him

"Too hairy, I'll be right behind you"

"Well I'm not letting you do it alone" I said to him

"Sammie..."

"This isn't up for debate" I argued reloading my gun

"Fine but don't leave my side" He tells me and I nod my head, "Ready?" He asked the others and threw a smoke grenade, the others made their way to the wall while me and Daryl stayed behind a bench firing at the other shooters. Daryl reloads and I kept firing.

"Daryl! Sam!" Rick yells at us

"Go!" Daryl told him and started shooting again then everything went black

* * *

I didn't know what was going on, Daryl and I got covers put over our heads and I hear a bunch of people talking, "What can I say?" I hear someone ask as the people stop talking, "Hasn't been a night like this since the walls were completed. And I thought we were past it- past the days when we all sat, huddled, scared in front of the TV during the early days of the outbreak. The fear we all felt then, we felt it again tonight. I failed you. I promised to keep you safe. Hell, look at me. You know, I- I should tell you that we'll be okay, that we're safe, that tomorrow we'll bury our dead and endure, but I- I won't, because I can't. Because I'm afraid. That's right. I'm afraid of terrorists who want what we have. Want to destroy us! And worse... because one of those terrorists... is one of our own. Merle..." the guy says and I stop struggling against the person holding me, "The man I counted on, the man I trusted. He led 'em here. And he let 'em in. It was you. You lied, betrayed us all." I heard him tell Merle and the person holding me started making me walk, "These are two of the terrorists. Merle's own brother and sister." He said and the cover gets taken off my head and I see Merle standing there in the middle of, well whatever it was and I looked at Daryl who was next to me, then I looked forward again and saw Andrea, "What should we do with them, huh?"

"Kill them!" The crowd yells

"What? What you want?" The guy asked again

"Kill them! Kill them!"

"You wanted your siblings. Now you got them." The man said to Merle who looked at us.


	12. Chapter 12

**Surviving the Dead: The Beginning**

"Philip." I see hear Andrea say and I look at her as she gets held back by someone

"Stay out of this."

"Their my friends." She begged him

"It's not up to me anymore. The people have spoken." He tell her

"What?"

"I asked you where your loyalties lie. You said here. Well, prove it. Prove it to us all. Brother against brother." The Governor announced and someone pulled me away from them

"Daryl!" I yelled and he moved to me but someone pushed him back

"Winner goes free. Fight to the death." The Governor says

"Phillip please, don't do this. Don't do this" Andrea pleaded and I looked at my brothers

"Let's go, Merle!"

"Come on, Merle!"

"Yeah, Merle!"

People cheered and he held up his arm, "Y'all know me. I'm gonna do whatever I got to do to prove..." He says and punched Daryl in the gut, I struggled against the person holding me back, "that my loyalty is to this town!" He yells and kicked Daryl

"Merle stop!" I yelled at him and he quickly glanced at me then continued beating Daryl, just then I hear snarling and 4 people walked out with walkers, the person holding me moved me over as they walked into the middle with the walkers and I struggled more as Daryl punched Merle in the face, Daryl went to get up and go after Merle but he brought Daryl to the ground.

Merle lifted Daryl up and they faced back to back looking at the walkers, Merle hit one and shoved it down, Daryl punched one as well moving it into the crowd

Just then there were gunshots and the walkers go down and everyone screamed, then I see a smoke grenade land in the middle and the gun shots took out the lights, "Sammie!" Daryl yelled and I whipped my head back hitting the guy holding me in the face then kneed him in the gut but the smoke covered the area before I could get to Daryl. One of the walkers came at me and I held it back but then it got pulled off me and thrown to the ground, I see Merle standing there

"Come on!" He yelled and I moved over to him and Daryl, "Stay close!" He tells us and we make our way out of the middle trying to find the others

"Merle, Sammie, come on" Daryl tells us

"Go" Merle told me and I followed Daryl

We see a light flash at us and a couple guys shot walkers with our crossbows, Daryl grabbed his from one guy and I punched the other grabbing mine as well and we ran to the others, "Let's go!" Daryl says

* * *

We got out on the other side of the wall and continued running, "They're all at the arena. This way." Merle told us

"You're not going anywhere with us." Rick says and I look at him

"You really want to do this now?" Merle asked him and started kicking at a part of the wall and going through

"Come on, man. Rick, come on. We've got to go." Daryl told him and we follow

I see Merle smashing a walkers skull in with the metal thing on his arm, "A little help would be nice." Daryl shoots one then Rick and Maggie do as well

"We ain't got time for this." Merle tells them and I follow him as he ran

"Let's go." Daryl tell them and we arrive back at the car we drove here

"Glenn!" Rick yells at him

"Rick. Rick. Rick. Oh, thank God."

"Now we got a problem here. I need you to back up." Rick says to him

"What the hell is he doing here?!" Glenn yelled as him and Michonne moved to Merle, Michonne drew her sword but Rick stepped in front of her

"Hey, hey, hey! Hey, put it down!" Daryl yells at her

"He tried to kill me!"

"If it wasn't for him-" Glenn started to tell Daryl

"He helped us get out of there."

"Yeah, right after he beat the shit out of you." Rick tells Daryl

"Hey, we both took our licks, man." Merle says

"Jackass." Daryl grumbled over his shoulder at him

"Hey, shut up."

"Enough! Hey, hey, relax! Put that down now!" Rick tells Michonne

"Get that thing out of my face!" Daryl warned Glenn

"Man, look like you've gone native, brother." Merle says to him

"No more than you hanging out with that psycho back there."

"Oh, yeah, man. He is a charmer, I got to tell you that. Been putting the wood to your girlfriend Andrea. Big time, baby." Merle says and I glared at him

"What? Andrea's in Woodbury?" Glenn asked

"Right next to the Governor." Daryl answered and Michonne moved forward with her sword again

"I told you to drop that!" Rick tells Michonne, "You know Andrea?" He asked her and she didn't say anything, "Hey, do you know Andrea?"

"Yep, she does. Her and blondie spent all winter cuddling up in the forest. Mm-mmm-mmm. Yeah. My Nubian queen here had two pet walkers. No arms, cut off the jaws, kept them in chains. Kind of ironic now that I think about it." Merle tells us and I look at him

"Shut up, Merle"

"Hey, we snagged them out of the woods. Andrea was close to dying." He says

"Is that why she's with him?" Maggie asked him

"Yeah. Snug as two little bugs. So what you gonna do now, Sheriff, huh? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards."

"Shut up!" Rick yelled at him

"Oh, man, look at this. Pathetic. All these guns and no bullets in them."

"Merle, shut up!" Daryl yelled at him

"Shut up yourself! Bunch of pussies you roll-" Merle started to say but Rick clipped him in the back of the head knocking him out

"Asshole." Rick says and I looked at Daryl

* * *

"It won't work." Rick tells me and Daryl

"It's gotta." Daryl argued

"It'll stir things up."

"Look, the Governor is probably on the way to the prison right now. Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle." Daryl tell him

"I'm not having him at the prison." Maggie says

"Do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Carol or Beth?" Glenn asked

"He's not a rapist." I tell him

"Well, his buddy is."

"They ain't buddies no more. Not after last night." Daryl mentioned

"There's no way Merle's gonna live there without putting everyone at each other's throats." Rick tells him

"So you're gonna cut Merle loose and bring the last samurai home with us?"

"She's not coming back." Rick said

"She's not in a state to be on her own." Maggie tells him

"She did bring you guys to us." Glenn adds

"And then ditched us."

"At least let my dad stitch her up." Maggie tells him

"She's too unpredictable."

"That's right. We don't know who she is. But Merle, Merle's blood." Daryl pointed out

"No, Merle is your blood. My blood, my family is standing right here and waiting for us back at the prison." Glenn tells us

"And you're part of that family, both of you. But he's not. He's not." Rick says

"Man, y'all don't know. Fine. We'll fend for ourselves." Daryl tells them and looked at me

"That's not what I was saying." Glenn tells him

"No him, no me or Sammie."

"Daryl, Sam, you don't have to do that." Maggie tells us and I look at her

"It was always Merle, Sam and I before this." Daryl said

"Don't." Maggie begged

"You serious? You're just gonna leave like that?" Glenn asked

"You'd do the same thing." I tell him

"What do you want us to tell Carol?" Glenn asked him

"She'll understand." Daryl answered and looked at Rick as I looked at Maggie then we started to walk away, "Say good-bye to your pop for me." Daryl tells her

"Daryl, Sam are you serious?" Glenn asked us

"Daryl!" Rick yelled running up to us, "Hey. Hey. There's got to be another way."

"Don't ask us to leave him. We already did that once." I tell Rick

"We started something last night. You realize that, huh?"

"No him, no me or Sammie" Daryl repeated and I looked back at Merle, "That's all I can say. Take care of yourself. Take care of lil ass-kicker. Carl. He's one tough kid." Daryl says to Rick as we grab our stuff from the car and we head over to Merle

"Daryl! Sam!"

"Come on, bro." Daryl tells him and we head off

* * *

"There ain't nothing out here but mosquitoes and ants." Daryl pointed out as we walk through the woods

"Patience, little brother. Sooner or later, a squirrel is bound to scurry across your path." Merle says

"Even so, that ain't much food for the 3 of us" I tell him

"More than nothing."

"We'd have better luck going through one of them houses we passed back on the turnoff." Daryl mentioned

"Is that what your new friends taught you? Hmm? How to loot for booty?" Merle asked and I glared at him

"We've been at it for hours. Why don't we find a stream, try our luck with some fish?" I said

"I think you're both just trying to lead me back to the road, man. Get me over to that prison." Merle tells us

"They got shelter. Food. A pot to piss in. Might not be a bad idea." I told him

"For you two, maybe. Ain't gonna be no damn party for me."

"Everyone will get used to each other." Daryl pointed out

"They're all dead. Makes no difference."

"How can you be so sure?" I asked him

"Right about now he's probably hosting a housewarming party where's he gonna bury what's left of your pals." He tells us, me and Daryl shared a look, "Let's hook some fish. Come on." He says and we followed

* * *

"Smells to me like the Sawhatchee Creek." Merle says to us while we walk

"We didn't go west enough. There's a river down there, it's got to be the Yellow Jacket." Daryl pointed out

"You have a stroke, boy? We ain't never even come close to Yellow Jacket."

"We didn't go west. Just a little bit south. That's what I think." I add

"Know what I think? I may have lost my hand, but you both lost your sense of direction."

"Yeah, we'll see." I tell him

"What do you want to bet?"

"I don't want to bet nothing. It's just a body of water. Why's everything got to be a competition with you?" I asked him

"Whoa, whoa. Take it easy, little sis. Just trying to have a little fun here. No need to get your panties all in a bundle." He says and I look at Daryl confused, he's never called me sis

"You hear that?" Daryl asked and I stopped to listen, I hear a faint sound of a baby

"Yeah, wild animals getting wild." Merle says

"No, it's a baby." I point out

"Oh, come on. Why don't you just piss in my ear and tell me it's raining, too? That there's the sound of a couple of coons making love, sweet love. Know what I mean?"

Me and Daryl move ahead and look up at a bridge, we see people up there getting cornered by walkers

"Hey! Jump!" Merle yelled and I shoved him

"What?" He asked, Daryl takes off and I follow him, "Hey, man, I ain't wasting my bullets on a couple of strangers that ain't never cooked me a meal or felicitated my piece. That's my policy. You'd be wise to adopt it you two." Merle said following us as we ran to the top of the bridge

We get to the top and Daryl shoots one that was attacking one of the men and I took out my knife stabbing another, "Come on, man. I'm trying to help you out. Cover me!" Daryl yelled at them and one guy got down grabbing a gun and shooting one. I raised my crossbow and killed one that was on the hood of the car where I hear the baby crying then I reloaded and shot the other one

"Daryl!" I yelled at him and he smashed the one by the door with his crossbow as I went to the trunk to pull the other one out and I smashed its head with the trunk door. Another walker was coming towards me but I was to slow to grab my knife and it grabbed me

"Sam! I got ya!" Merle yells and shot it in the head, "Go!" He tells me, Daryl and I run over to the other guys and I killed another walker with my knife that I finally grabbed out and the guy with the gun started yelling at us in Spanish

"Speak English." Daryl tells him as we reloaded

One of them goes after the guy and Daryl shot another one, I look over and see Merle lean against a car then killed one by me, "Daryl!" I yelled at him and he looked over at the one the guy was fighting off taking out his knife and killed it then kicked it over the bridge. I see Merle walk over to the car with the woman and baby moving to the backseat, I nudged Daryl and he looked over as well. The guy ran over yelling at him in Spanish but Merle pulled his gun on him

"Slow down, beaner. That ain't no way to say thank you." Merle tells him and the two guys speak to each other in Spanish

"Let 'em go." I tell Merle who went back to go through the back seat

"The least they can do is give us an enchilada or something, huh? Easy does it, señorita. Everything's gonna be fine."

I looked at Daryl and he raised his crossbow at Merle and nudged him, "Get out of the car."

"I know you're not talking to me, brother."

"Get in your car and get the hell out of here. Go! Get in your car! Go!" I tell them and they get in then drove off, Merle moved Daryl's crossbow out of his face and Daryl walked away, I gave Merle a look then followed

* * *

"The shit you doing, pointing that thing at me?" Merle asked him

"They were scared, man."

"They were rude is what they were. Rude and they owed us a token of gratitude." Merle says

"They didn't owe us nothing." I tell him

"You helping people out of the goodness of your heart? Even though you might die doing it? Is that something your Sheriff Rick taught you?" Merle asked

"There was a baby!" I yelled at him

"Oh, otherwise you would have just left them to the biters, then?" Merle asked and I knew where he was going

"Man, I went back for you. You weren't there. I didn't cut off your hand, neither. You did that. Way before they locked you up on that roof. You asked for it." Daryl told him

"You know- you know what's funny to me? You and Sheriff Rick are like this now. Right? I bet you a penny and a fiddle of gold that you never told him that we were planning on robbing that camp blind." Merle said and I looked at him in shock

"It didn't happen." Daryl told him and looked at me

"Yeah, it didn't 'cause I wasn't there to help you."

"What, like when we were kids, huh? Who left who then?" Daryl asked

"What? Huh? Is that why I lost my hand?" Merle asks him

"You lost your hand 'cause you're a simpleminded piece of shit."

"Yeah? You don't know!" Merle yelled at him grabbing Daryl's shirt and ripping it revealing the scars on his back

I shoved Merle back, "Back off Merle!" I yell at him and went over to Daryl

"I- I didn't know he was-"

"Yeah, he did, mostly because I was protecting Sammie, unlike you. He did the same to you. That's why you left first." Daryl told him straightening himself out, sounding like he was trying to hold tears back and Merle looked between us

"I had to, man. I would have killed him otherwise." Merle said and we walked away, "Where you going?"

"Back where we belong." I tell him

"I can't go with you. I tried to kill that black bitch. Damn near killed the Chinese kid."

"He's Korean." I corrected

"Whatever. Doesn't matter. I just can't go with you."

"You know, we may be the ones walking away...but you're the one that's leaving- again." Daryl tells him and we continue walking.

* * *

We get closer to the prison when I hear the sound of gunfire, "Shit!" I said and started running

"Sammie!" Daryl yelled after me but I kept running and eventually Merle caught up to us. I see Rick pinned on the fence by two walkers, me and Daryl raise our crossbows and shoot them then Merle ran forward killing another one, I tried to get my crossbow ready as another one came towards me, "Sammie!" Daryl yelled and I looked at him, he tossed me his loaded crossbow as I dropped mine and shot it killing the walker then handed back to him. After we get them all Rick looked at me and Daryl then at Merle who was laughing, I shook my head and we headed to the fence and saw our field was filled with a few walkers now.


	13. Chapter 13

**Surviving the Dead: The Beginning**

"We're not leaving." Rick says as we all gathered in our cell block

"We can't stay here." Hershel tells him

"What if there's another sniper? A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds." Maggie adds

"We can't even go outside." Beth pointed out

"Not in the daylight." Carol says

"Rick says we're not running, we're not running." Glenn said to us

"No, better to live like rats." Merle said from the other room on the other side of the gate that Rick locked him in

"You got a better idea?" Rick asked him

"Yeah, we should have slid out of here last night and lived to fight another day. But we lost that window, didn't we? I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now."

"We ain't scared of that prick." Daryl tells him

"Y'all should be. That truck through the fence thing, that's just him ringing the doorbell. We might have some thick walls to hide behind, but he's got the guns and the numbers. And if he takes the high ground around this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to."

"Let's put him in the other cell block." Maggie says twisting her bandana on her wrist

"No. He's got a point." Daryl defended

"This is all you. You started this." Maggie tells him

"What difference whose fault it is? What do we do?" Beth asked

"I said we should leave. Now Axel's dead. We can't just sit here." Hershel tells us and Rick started to walk away, "Get back here!" Hershel yelled standing up making me jump a little, "You're slipping, Rick. We've all seen it. We understand why. But now is not the time. You once said this isn't a democracy. Now you have to own up to that. I put my family's life in your hands. So get your head clear and do something."

* * *

"Can I come in?" I asked Maggie knocking on the wall of her cell door

"Yeah"

I walked in and sat down next to her on her bed, "Are you..mad at me?" I asked her and she looked at me

"Why would I be mad at you Sam?"

"Because of what Merle did, Glenn barely says two words to me so I didn't know if..." I started to say but she grabbed my hand

"Sam, I'm not mad at you, Merle did those things to Glenn not you."

"True but he's my brother" I tell her

"So that makes you guilty? No, Glenn's just not happy with what the Governor did to me" She says and I faced her

"Maggie did he?"

"No, no, not that. He just...made me take my shirt off and bent me over the table otherwise he was gonna hurt Glenn even more, bring me his hand...so I..." I cut her off and pulled her into a hug

"I am so sorry Maggie" I tell her fighting back tears and she tightened the hug, I rubbed her back and heard her sniffle, she pulled away wiping her tears, "I wish I would have been there because then I would have cut his head off."

"I'm sure Glenn would have beaten you to it"

"Not that head" I said with a smirk and she laughed

"Sam!" She chuckled

"I am sorry though Maggie, I should have gone with you both on that run"

"Even if you did, who knows what would have happened." She tells me

"Right. Well I'm gonna go try and figure out a way to make my cell more private." I said and stand up, "Wow there's a sentence I never thought I'd hear myself say" I tell her with a smile and start to walk out

"Oh Sam wait." She called to me and I turned to face her, "We had an extra blanket in here, maybe you could find a way to hang it up."

"Thanks Maggie"

* * *

I stood on a chair in my cell trying to hammer in some nails I managed to find with the handle of my knife, "Why not just use a hammer?" I hear Merle ask from outside my cell and I looked at him

"If I had one sure" I tell him and continued

"Here let me try something"

I get down off the chair and he gets up, he started banging on the nail with him metal hand, "Thanks" I said and went over to grab the blanket, "Merle."

"Hmm"

"Why did you call me little sis? You've never called me that my whole life." I tell him and he stopped then looked at me

"Cause you're my little sister"

"Since when" I scoffed

"Since day one, when that waitress brought you to our dad"

"But...you've never considered me your sister, only Daryl has I mean he practically raised me." I said and he got off the chair and walked over to me

"And who do you think taught him how to take care of you?" He asked me and I looked at him in shock then he put his hands on my shoulders, "Look, I know I was always and asshole to ya, but the truth is I've always cared about you, always loved ya, always will. I just didn't want to get close to you because I wasn't exactly the best role model, for you or for Daryl. Truth is I've always been there, who do you think beat the crap out of that Tim kid when he picked on you?"

"I thought Daryl did.."

"Nope, he tried but I stepped in. No one messes with us Dixons" He tells me and I smiled then hugged him, he tensed but slowly put his arm around me

"Thank you Merle"

"You're welcome baby sis," He pulled away and walked back over to the chair moving it to the other side of the cell, "But if you tell anyone about this, I'll kick your ass"

"You can try" I said with a smirk and he scoffed getting on the chair.

* * *

"Take watch. Eyes open, head down." Rick tells us handing Maggie the keys while me and Daryl walked down the stairs, "Field's filled with walkers. I didn't see any snipers out there, but we'll keep Maggie on watch."

"I'll get up in the guard tower, take out half them walkers, give these guys a chance to fix the fence." Daryl says

"Or use some of the cars to put the bus in place." Michonne suggested

"We can't access the field without burning through our bullets." Hershel pointed out

"So we're trapped in here. There's barely any food or ammo." Glenn says

"Been here before. We'll be all right." Daryl tells him

"That's when it was just us. Before there was a snake in the nest."

"Man, we gonna go through this again? Look, Merle's staying here. He's with us now. Get used to it." Daryl said looking at him

"Hey" Rick tried to calm him

"All ya'll" Daryl adds and walked up the stairs

"Seriously, Rick, I don't think Merle living here is really gonna fly." Glenn tells Rick

"I can't kick him out."

"I wouldn't ask you to live with Shane after he tried to kill you." Glenn mentioned

"Merle has military experience. He may be erratic, but don't underestimate his loyalty to me or Daryl." I said to Glenn and he looked at me then back at Rick

"What if we solve both problems at once? Deliver Merle to the Governor. Bargaining chip. Give him his traitor, maybe declare a truce."

I crossed my arms and looked at Glenn, "You'll have to get through me and Daryl first" I told him and walked away

* * *

"What cha doing little man?" I asked Carl walking out to the walkway bridge as he stood there looking through binoculars

"Keeping watch for snipers"

"I need to get you some comics or something" I tell him and he continues looking out at the field, "Listen Carl, I don't want to bring it up but..." I started to say but he cut me off

"I get that you had to do it, it was the only my sister would have survived"

I crouch down next to him putting my hand on his shoulder and he looked at me, "I am sorry, that we lost her, now I know I can't replace her but I'm always here for you if you need anything, same goes for Judith. I didn't have a mom growing up, I just had Daryl."

"Daryl told me what happened to your mom, how she died in a fire" He tell me and I look at him confused

"Carl um...Daryl and Merle's mom wasn't my mom, we had all had the same dad but...my mom uh..took off when I was a baby, after she had me."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know" He says putting his head down

"Hey," I said and he looked at me, "It's ok, not many people do, Daryl and Merle are my brothers, and right now the only family I have left, other then all of you"

"Do you think your mom is still alive?"

"Part of me hopes so," I lied, "But if she's not, then at least she's in a better place." Truthfully I didn't care, she left me, abandoned me, gave me to my abusive father. If she was alive or dead, it didn't matter, "Want some company?" I asked him and he nodded his head, I stand up and he looked back out into the field as I walked over to the other end.

"Psst." He whispered and I looked at him, "Something weird out there." He says and I lifted my rifle up looking through the scope

"Andrea." I whispered to him, "Get your dad and the others." I tell him and he headed back inside

* * *

Daryl, Rick, Merle, Beth and Michonne run out the block entrance with guns looking out where Andrea was walking up and Carl ran back out to where I was.

"Go" Rick said to Merle who moved forward and looked around

"Clear!"

They all move forward as well, Glenn and Carol came out too as Andrea neared the gate, "Are you alone!" Rick asked her leaning against the fence

"Open the gate"

"Are you alone?!" He asked again and I see walkers started to go towards her, Rick throws Daryl the keys and he unlocked the gate then Merle opened it and she let go of the walker she was holding and ran inside, "Hands up! Turn around!" Rick tells her

"What?"

"Turn around now!" He yelled at her putting her face to the fence and started patting her down then a walker goes against the fence and she screamed, "Get down on the floor" He continued patting her down, "I asked if you were alone"

"I am" She replied and he took her bag from her and threw it aside as me and Carl walked over

"Welcome back" Rick says and helped her stand

* * *

We walked back inside and Andrea walked down the steps hugging Carol, I stayed at the top of the steps next to Merle, "After you saved me, we thought you were dead."

"Hershel, my God." Andrea says and they pulled away, "I can't believe this. Where's Shane? And Lori?" She asked and I looked down

"She had a girl. Lori didn't survive." Hershel says

"Neither did T-Dog." Maggie added

"I'm so sorry. Carl. Rick, I- You all live here?" She asked us

"Here and the cell block." Glenn told her

"There? Well, can I go in?"

"I won't allow that." Rick says

"I'm not an enemy, Rick."

"We had that field and courtyard until your boyfriend tore down the fence with a truck and shot us up." Rick pointed out

"He said you fired first."

"Well, he's lying." Rick said

"He killed an inmate who survived in here." Hershel mentioned

"We liked him. He was one of us." Daryl added

"I didn't know anything about that. As soon as I found out, I came. I didn't even know you were in Woodbury until after the shoot-out."

"That was days ago." I told her

"I told you, I came as soon as I could. What have you told them?" She asked Michonne

"Nothing."

"I don't get it. I left Atlanta with you people and now I'm the odd man out?" Andrea asked

"He almost killed Michonne and he would have killed us."

"With his finger on the trigger." She cut Glenn off pointing at Merle, "Isn't he the one who kidnapped you? Who beat you? Look, I cannot excuse or explain what Philip has done." She says and I look at Merle, _Philip?_ I mouthed to him and he shrugged, "But I am here trying to bring us together. We have to work this out."

"There's nothing to work out. We're gonna kill him. I don't know how or when, but we will." Rick tells her

"We can settle this. There is room at Woodbury for all of you."

"You know better than that." Merle says to her

"What makes you think this man wants to negotiate? Did he say that?" Hershel asked her

"No."

"Then why did you come here?" I asked walking down a step standing in front of her

"Because he's gearing up for war. The people are terrified. They see you as killers. They're training to attack."

"I'll tell you what. Next time you see Philip, you tell him I'm gonna take his other eye." Daryl said

"We're taken too much shit for too long. He wants a war? He's got one." Glenn says to her

"Rick. If you don't sit down and try to work this out, I don't know what's gonna happen. He has a whole town. Look at you. You've lost so much already. You can't stand alone anymore."

"You want to make this right, get us inside." Rick tells her

"No."

"Then we got nothing to talk about." He says and walked away

"There are innocent people."

* * *

I drove one of the prison cars through the gate to give Andrea for her drive back, "Sam I.." She started to say but I walked away over to Daryl, "Can you spare it?" She asked Rick

"Yeah" He answered and she looked around to all of us

"Well take care" She says getting in then drove to the gate and Merle let her out

"You ever gonna forgive her?" Daryl asked me

"Someday" I said and walked back inside

Later that night we were hanging out in the cell block while Beth and Glenn sat on the floor with some candles playing a game and Beth started to sing

'They hung a sign up in our town. If you live it up, you won't live it down. So she left Monte Rio, son. Just like a bullet leaves a gun. With charcoal eyes and Monroe hips. She went and took the California trip. Well, the moon was gold and her hair like wind. Said don't look back now. Just come on, Jim. You got to hold on.' She sang and it hit my heart, I looked down and walked away into the other room, Merle looked at me as I walked by, 'Hold on. You got to hold on. Take my hand, I'm standing right here. You got to hold on. Well, he gave her a dime-store watch. And a ring made from a spoon. Everyone's looking for someone to blame. If you share my bed, you share my name...'

"Andrea told me what happened" I heard Merle say and I looked at him, "About..." He indicated to my stomach

"Oh" I said and sat down on the top of a table, he walked over and sat down next to me

"I'm sorry that happened to you, but if I was there I would've kicked the shit out of him for knockin' you up"

"He didn't even know" I told him wiping a tear away, "When we went to the CDC I found out but that was after...he got bit and we..." I swallowed the lump in my throat, "We left by a tree...to die" I said and he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and I leaned my head on his

"I'm sorry Sam" He says and a few tears came out and I sniffled, he pulled me closer to him and we sat there. I never had a moment like this with him ever, so we stayed quiet just enjoying it. While it lasts.

'When there's nothing left to keep you here. When you're falling behind in this big blue world. You got to hold on. Hold on. Got to hold on. Take my hand, I'm standing right here. Got to hold on...Down by the Riverside Motel. It's 10 below and falling. By a 99-cent store. She closed her eyes and started swaying. But it's so hard to dance that way. When it's cold and there's no music. Well, your old hometown is so far away. But inside your head there's a record. That's playing a song called. Hold on, hold on. Baby, you got to hold on. Take my hand, I'm standing right there. You got to hold on. You got to hold on, hold on. Baby, got to hold on. Take my hand, I'm standing right there. You got to hold on. You got to hold on, hold on. Baby, you got to hold on. And take my hand, I'm standing right here. You got to hold on. You got to hold on. You got to hold on, baby. You got to hold on, girl. You got to hold on. You got to hold on.'


	14. Chapter 14

**Surviving the Dead: The Beginning**

"I don't like the idea of you going" I told Daryl as he was getting his bike ready, to go with Rick and Hershel to meet with the Governor

"I'll be fine Sammie"

"I know you will, but I can still worry. I wish you would let me come with." I said and he looked at me

"I need you here, keep an eye on Merle so he doesn't do anything stupid"

"Trying to keep Merle from doing something stupid is like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands" I chuckled

He gave a small smile, "He'll listen to you, you two seem to have gotten close."

"Yeah we have, it's nice" I tell him and he put his hand on my shoulder

"I'll be back"

"You better" I said and he got on his bike then they drove off

* * *

"Carl, come here. You stash these at the loading dock. All right?" Glenn tells him handing Carl a couple boxes of ammo as we prepped weapons, "Beth, put more up on the catwalk. If anyone gets pinned down, we need to make sure that they have plenty of ammo. I'll go work on the cage outside." He says and grabbed a torch and gloves

"What we should be doing is loading some of this firepower in a truck and paying a visit to the Governor. We know where he is right now." Merle says

"Are you suggesting that we just go in and kill him?" Glenn asked him

"Yeah, I am."

"We told Rick and Daryl that we'd stay put." Michonne tells him

"I've changed my mind, sweetheart. Being on the sideline with our brother out there ain't sitting right with me."

"The three of them are right in the middle of it. No idea we're coming. They could get taken hostage or killed. A thousand things could go wrong." Glenn pointed out to him

"And they will."

"My dad can take care of himself." Carl told him

"Sorry, son, but your dad's head could be on a pike real soon." Merle says and Carl walked away

"Don't say that to him." I said to him and he looked at me while I continued loading my clip

"It's not the right move. Not now. Can't take the risk of putting them in the crossfire. That's my decision. It's final." Glenn says and left

"Look Merle I'm worried about Daryl too, you know that, but Glenn is right. Best way to keep our brother, Rick and Hershel safe is to stay here and prepare." I point out to him and he sighed

* * *

Me and Maggie walked back into the dining hall and saw Merle put a bag on the table then grabbed some guns, "Hey, you're not going." Glenn told him

"I don't need permission."

"I can't let you Merle" I said and he looked at me

"You can't stop me." He says grabbing the bag

"If you're gonna live here with us, it's gonna be on our terms. If Michonne can do it, why can't you?" I asked him

"'Cause it's our brother out there, that's why." He says and looked at all of us, "What's the matter with y'all?" He asked and walked up the steps but Glenn stayed in front of the door

"I'm not gonna let you put them in danger." Glenn tells him

"Nut up already, boy. This guy cops a feel of your woman and you pussy out like this?" Merle asked him and I saw anger boil in Glenn eyes, "Get out of my way."

"No."

"Get out of my way!" Merle yells at him and shoved him but they both ended up falling dow the stairs, Merle landed on top of Glenn and held his metal hand up but Me and Maggie rushed to pull him off and I took hold of his arm

"Merle stop it!" I yelled at him but then a gun shot went off and we see Beth standing there "Let me go! Let me go!" Merle yelled shoving us off, "Don't you care about Daryl?" He asked me getting off of Glenn and I slapped him

"Don't you dare think that I don't care about him! You just got back into my life and I'll be damned if I let you put yourself in danger!" I said pointing my finger at him, "I care about everyone here and I would die to keep them safe, including your stupid ass. So knock it off!" I tell him and walked away

* * *

 **Merle POV...**

I watched Michonne finish loading up her bag then grabbed her sword and walked past me, "You know I'm right," I tell her and she looked at me, "The folks here, they're strong, good fighters. But they ain't killers."

"Rick is. Maggie is. Carl put down his own mother."

"Mercy killing. That don't make him an assassin." I pointed out

"Mmm, but you are."

"When I have to be." I said

"Then how do you explain letting me get away?"

"I must have been seduced by your sterling personality. You coming with me or not?" I asked her, "Me and my brother, we have a few calls we use when we hunt. I'll give him a heads up. He'll warn the others. You shogun the Governor's ass, I'll take care of the rest. We'll be home before you know it."

"And what about Andrea?" She asked

"Bullets fly, she's gonna have to make her choice real quick."

"You're on your own. You get people killed, it's on you." She says and walked away, then I see Sam walk out of her cell and started walking down the stairs

"Sam," I called and she looked at me, "You know I don't doubt that you don't care about Daryl, or me for that matter, but I don't trust that prick and the second things go south..."

"Daryl can handle himself, so can I, we've been doing it for years now." She tells me and set her bag down when she reached the bottom then put her crossbow over her shoulder and a knife on her belt.

"I know I wasn't around much for you both, but I'm here now, and I want to keep you and Daryl safe no matter what."

"If you want to keep us safe then help us protect this place, because when Daryl gets back and the Governor comes the 3 of us can't be stopped." She tells me and I smiled

"When did you become the wise one?"

"When the world went to shit" She says then grabbed her bag and walked away

* * *

 **Samantha POV...**

"So, I met this Governor. Sat with him for quite a while." Rick told us as we gathered in the cell block

"Just the two of you?" Merle asked him

"Yeah."

"Should have gone when we had the chance, bro." Merle says to Glenn as he walked past him

"He wants the prison. He wants us gone. Dead. He wants us dead for what we did to Woodbury. We're going to war." Rick said then walked away and I looked at Daryl then Merle.

* * *

 **Daryl POV...**

"It's the only way. No one else knows." Rick says to me

"You gonna tell 'em?" I asked him

"Not till after. We have to do it today. It has to be quiet."

"You got a plan?" I asked

"We tell her we need to talk. Away from the others."

I looked at him for a moment thinking about his plan, "Just ain't us, man."

"No. No, it isn't." Hershel added and walked away

"We do this, we avoid a fight. No one else dies." Rick tells me

"Okay."

"We need someone else." He mentioned and I knew who he was talking about

"I'll talk to him."

"I'll do it." He says

"I'll go with you."

"No. Just me." He told me and walked away

* * *

"Hey. You seen Merle around?" I asked Glenn as he was trying to fix one of the metal doors outside but he didn't answer, I walked over and helped him locking one of the chains, "He say he was sorry yet? 'Cause he is." I tell him and he gabbed a box with bottles and walked over to a table setting them down, "He's gonna make it right. I'm gonna make him. There's got to be a way. Just needs to be a little forgiveness is all." I said and he walked over

"He tied me to a chair, beat me, and threw a walker in the room. Maybe I could call it even. But he- he took Maggie to a man who terrorized her, humiliated her. I care more about her than I care about me." He says and walked back over to the table, I walked over grabbing my crossbow and started to walk away.

"You know, it's one thing to be pissed at Merle for what he did, but don't take it out on Sammie, you've barely spoken to her since we got back and it wasn't her fault. You're her best friend and you not talking to her because of Merle, hurts her." I point out to him and walked away

* * *

"Merle. You down here?" I called to him walking through the basement corridors and I hear clattering coming from a room so I raised my crossbow, "Merle."

"Hey, little brother." He says and I lower it looking around

"What the hell?"

"I was just about to holler back at ya." He tells me leaning on work table

"What you doing down here?"

"Just looking for a little crystal meth." He tells me and I look at him shaking my head, "Yeah, yeah, I know. shit will mess my life up when everything is going so sweet, right?"

"You talk to Rick yet?" I asked him

"Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm in. But, uh, he ain't got the stomach for it. He's gonna buckle. You know that, right?"

"Yeah. If he does, he does." I pointed out

"You want him to?" He asked me

"Whatever he says goes."

"Man. Do you even possess a pair of balls, little brother? Are they even attached? I mean, if they are, they belong to you? I mean I know little sis has you wrapped around her finger but come on man, you used to call people like that sheep. What happened to you?" He asked me

"What happened with you and Glenn and Maggie?" I asked him

"I've done worse. You need to grow up. Things are different now. Your people look at me like I'm the devil...grabbing up those lovebirds like that, huh? Now y'all want to do the same damn thing I did- snatch someone up and deliver them to the Governor, just like me. Yeah. People do what they got to do or they die."

"Can't do things without people anymore, man." I point out and he scoffed

"Maybe these people need somebody like me around, huh? Do their dirty work. The bad guy. Yeah, maybe that's how it is now, huh? How does that hit you?"

I looked at him and put my hand on his shoulder, "Me and Sam just want our brother back."

"Get out of here, man." He says and I walked away

As I walked back into the cell block I went up the stairs to Sammie's cell and saw her sitting on her bed sharpening her knife, "I need to tell you something" I said to her and she looked at me.

* * *

 **Samantha POV...**

"It's off. We'll take our chances." Rick says to Daryl walking over to him then looked at me

"He told me" I said to him

"I'm not saying it was the wrong call, but this is definitely the right one." Daryl tells him and we see him look around

"What's wrong?" I asked him

"I can't find Merle or Michonne. They've gone."

"Come on." Daryl tells him and we head down to the basement level, "He was in here. Said he was looking for drugs. Said a lot of things, actually."

"Like what?" Rick asked him and Daryl was looking around the room

"Said that you were gonna change your mind. Here we go." He mentioned and picked up a cloth, "Yeah, he took her here. They mixed it up."

"Damn it! I'm going after him." Rick said heading to the back door and we followed

"You can't track for shit."

"Then the both of us." Rick says

"No, just me. I said I'd go and I'll go."

"I'm coming with" I told Daryl and he shook his head

"No"

"It's not up for debate Daryl, I'm coming end of discussion." I said and he hesitated before nodding

"They're gonna come back here. You need to be ready. Your family, too." Daryl said to Rick and we walked out the door

* * *

Me and Daryl come up on Michonne seeing her stab a walkers head that was on the ground, "Hey! Where's my brother? You kill him?" Daryl asked her

"He let me go."

"Don't let anyone come after us." Daryl says and we start running

* * *

We finally get to the feed mill and look around seeing a few dead walkers, men laying on the ground, and walkers eating the bodies. One walker came up to us and I killed it as Daryl walked forward, I walked over to him hearing him starting to cry and I looked where he was looking and my heart stopped. There kneeling on the ground, was our brother, or what used to be our brother but he was now one of those things eating a dead body. He looked up at us then stood up walking over the body he was eating coming towards us, I put my hand over my mouth failing to hold back my tears as Daryl pushed him back crying as well, Merle walked back to him again and Daryl tackled him to the ground grabbing his knife then stabbed him in the head, then did it over and over again.

"Daryl, Daryl stop." I beg him kneeling down next to him trying to stop him and he fell off Merle's body still crying and I pulled him to me crying as well and we sat there, looking at the body of our dead brother.

* * *

After a while, we finally got back to the prison, we didn't talk the whole way back, just walked in silence. I see Maggie and Glenn look at us as Daryl walked ahead of me going into the prison, "Sam?" Maggie asked and I looked at her then Glenn

"Merle won't bother you anymore" I said looking at Glenn then headed inside as well and slowly made my way up the stairs into my cell and sat down on my bed just staring off into space, shortly after I hear a knock on the wall outside my cell

"Sam?" I hear Glenn ask and he lifted the blanket I put over the door then walked in

"I'm sorry I acted like that"

He sighed and sat down next to me grabbing my hand, "It's ok. What happened?"

I sniffled, "Merle let Michonne go, I don't what happened after that but when me and Daryl got to the mill we saw...we saw M-Merle." I could barely get out what I was trying to say and he wrapped his arms around me pulling me into a hug and I cried into his shoulder, "I can't keep losing the people I love Glenn, I can't take it anymore." I said with my voice breaking.

"I'm sorry Sam, about everything. I'm sorry"

I pulled away and looked at him, "I don't blame you, for hating him for what he did, but he was my brother Glenn. I just got him back and we finally start to get close and now..." I stopped and stood up, "The worst part of it all, was the Governor shot him and let him turn into one of..one of those things! And Daryl..." I paused and wiped the tears away, "I want to kill him, I want to kill the Governor, I want to watch him suffer and pay for everything he's done, for killing my brother. Like what Merle told me, nobody messes with the Dixons."

* * *

The next few days we gathered up our stuff to leave, I was in my cell putting everything together when something caught my eye, I put one of my shirts in my bag and picked it up, it was Merle's dog tags. I sat down on my bed holding them with tears coming out, he may have been an asshole but he was my brother and I'm gonna miss him like hell. I put the dog tags around my neck, finished packing up and walked outside over to my bike which was next to Daryl's who was sitting on the ground when Carol walked over

"You know, Merle never did nothing like that his whole life." Daryl tells him and I looked over

"He gave us a chance." She says to him and helped him up, gathered up his arrows and put them on his bike then walked over to me, "You sure you wanna do this?"

"I need to, for Merle"

He wrapped his arm around me and kissed the top of my head, "Be careful"

"Always am."

* * *

We sat at the prison and waited, I was down in the tombs when i hear footsteps, after a moment I threw out a flash bang and people lead by the Governor started screaming and moved to leave.

"Hold your ground! Hold your ground!" The Governor shouted but they all ran out, I made my way out of the tombs and headed to the catwalk with Maggie who was in riot gear and we started shooting at everyone as they were coming out, then I see the Governor and I fired at him but kept missing and he fired back at me so I ducked.

Just then they all head to their vehicles and drive off, "We did it?" Maggie hollered to Glenn as he takes his helmet off

"We did it. Come on down."

* * *

"We did it. We drove them out." Rick says as we look out of the gate entrance

"We should go after them." Michonne tells him

"We should finish it." Daryl adds

"It is finished. Didn't you see them hightail it out of here?" Maggie asked

"They could regroup. We can't take the chance. He's not gonna stop."

"They're right. We can't keep living like this." I mentioned

"So we take the fight back to Woodbury. We barely made it back last time."

"He don't care." Daryl says

"Yeah. Let's check on the others." Rick tells us and we head inside the prison

* * *

"Rick we're staying, We don't know where the Governor is. If he comes back, we'll hold him off." Glenn tells him as we get ready to go

"Just the four of us? All right." Daryl says and put his crossbow over his shoulder and we get on our bikes

"I appreciate you staying." Rick tells them and we drive up to the gate and headed out

* * *

We came up to a rode and saw a truck stopped with dead bodies all around with walkers eating them, I take my crossbow off my shoulder and shoot one then Michonne kills two with her sword and Daryl killed another one.

Rick walked forward killing one and suddenly there was a bang on the truck window causing Daryl to jump and move away, Rick pointed his gun up and Daryl moved back to open the door letting the woman out and we made our way to Woodbury moving towards the wall of the town when a gunshot goes off next to Rick and we take cover shooting back.

"Tyreese! It's me don.."

"Get down!" Rick tells the woman pulling her back down

"Karen! Karen are you okay?!"

She stands up again and pulled away from Rick, "I'm fine!"

"Where's the Governor?" He asked her

"He fired on everyone. He killed them all."

"Why are you with them?" He asks

"They saved me."

"We're coming out!" Rick tells him and Daryl shook his head, "We're coming out." Rick says and we stand up raising our hands walking forward as the gate opened

"What are you doing here?" Tyreese asked Rick

"We were coming to finish this until we saw what the Governor did."

"He ... he killed them?" He asks

"Yeah. Karen told us Andrea hopped the wall going for the prison. She never made it. She might be here."

* * *

"This is where he had Glenn and Maggie." Rick tells Tyreese as we made our way through the warehouse

"The Governor held people here?"

"He did more than hold them." Daryl says and we come up on a door and see blood

"Will you open it?" Michonne asked Rick after drawing her sword and both him, Daryl and I raised our guns

"One, two..." Rick counted and opened the door, we see Andrea on the ground and Michonne rushed over

"Andrea!"

"I tried to stop them." Andrea tells us and I see a dead walker on the ground

"You're burning up." Michonne says to her and Andrea moved the part of her shirt that was over her shoulder revealing a bit mark

"Judith, Carl, the rest of them..." She started to say but Rick cut her off

"Us. The rest of us."

"Are they alive?" She asked

"Yeah, they're alive."

"It's good you found them." She tells Michonne who's crying, "No one can make it alone now." She says looking at me and Daryl and I feel tears in my eyes

"They never could." Daryl tells her

"I just didn't want anyone to die. I can do it myself."

"No." Michonne tells her

"I have to. While I still can. Please? I know how the safety works." She tells Rick and he slowly hands her a gun

"Well I'm not going anywhere" Michonne tells her

"Sam..."

I knelt down and held her hand, "I'm sorry, I should have said it sooner but I thought we would have time. I forgive you" I said and tears fall down my face and she smiled

"I'll tell Jim you said hi" She says and my heart sank but I gave her a smile

"Thank you, for everything" I tell her and Daryl helped me stand up

"I tried" Andrea says

"Yeah. You did" Rick told her and stands up then we walk out of the room and he shuts the door. We stand there for a few more moments then we hear a gunshot, I put my hand over my mouth and cried as Daryl pulled me to him into a hug.

* * *

We headed back to the prison with a bus following us, with people from Woodbury and we entered the gate. I see the others look at us confused as everyone gets off the bus and looked around then Tyreese and Sasha lead them inside.

"You okay?" Daryl asked me and I gave a small smile

"I will be" I tell him and he put his hand on my shoulder

"We will be, we're family"

I nod my head and he hugged me. Today was the day we started to rebuild what we lost, and remember the people we lost.


End file.
